Sangheili and Dragons
by Legion 716
Summary: After an attack by surviving Brute warships, Shadow of Intent's crew crashes on a Planet that looks like Earth, mistaking it for the same planet. Then, the Arbiter encounter's the most strangest and interesting creature in his life: Cynder. Now, the fate of the Dragon city must rely on the heroes of two separate worlds, in order to repel an intimidating and violent foe...
1. An Unthinkable attack

**Disclaimer:**I do not own most of the characters in this story, except maybe a couple of Elites. This is my first Fanfic so go easy on me. Feel free to review, I am not forcing you to. I just want to get better at this stuff...so here goes nothing.

_Sangheili and Dragons_

No matter whom you are,

No matter what you are,

You…are never alone in this universe

In the deep and darkest of space, with stars twinkling around the universe, a large Assault Carrier entitled: The Shadow of Intent and its crew seek to return home after the war with the Covenant and the Flood. The crews of the mighty Carrier are exhausted, having to fight off numerous hordes of the parasite as well as the savage and bloodlust Brutes.

In the main hanger bay, only few Elites stroll around, checking to see if everything was normal with their vehicles and weaponry. It has been 12 hours since they left the planet Earth. They risked their lives to save that world and left their home almost unprotected. Hopefully, the surviving Brute ships did not find it...hopefully.

On the bridge of the ship, in the ship command seat, lies an elite in different armour from the other Elites. These warriors are brave, strong, smart and honorable. Sangheili are their real names, it's just that Humans could not be bothered saying a strange word all the time. Besides, Elite is an appropriate term for a race such as the Sangheili.

That Elite in strange armour was the Arbiter, a hero of their race now, who is tired and exhausted from fighting alongside Spartan 117. He still wonders if the Master Chief lived or not, it was almost impossible to survive such a blast wave like Halo's explosion. But right now, he is tasked of getting the ship, and her people, back to Sangehilios.

"All right...Rtas! Please come over here" Arbiter called out to a Sangheili in white armour and only two mandibles on the right side of his mouth. The other 2 were ripped off an. Rtas walked over to the Arbiter, who was looking into deep space from his seat.

"Yes Arb-, I mean...Shipmaster" Rtas correcting his mistake, as he is not the commander of the ship anymore.

"Please, just call me Arbiter or Thel, I'm not used to being called by that rank yet" The Arbiter turned his towards Rtas, as if he was giving a smiling expression.

"Yes Arbiter, what did you call me for?" Rtas asked his superior. "How far are we from home friend…I'm getting worried something bad has happened" Thel has been getting a little anxious for the past 3 hours.

"I don't know, at least 2 days, It may take longer at this speed" Rtas replied. Thel dropped his slowly and let out a long sigh.

"Thanks for telling me...that's all for now" his face now giving off a sad expression.

"Is there something you want to talk about Arbiter?" Rtas was concerned about his friend, never in his career has he seen Arbiter in this state.

"No Rtas, you just go back to what you were doing, I need some time to myself" The Arbiter said in a low voice. Rtas gave a nod and walked away.

Another hour passed and still no sign of Sangehilios. The Shadow of Intent instead was passing over a blue Planet with large continents. It looked all too familiar to Earth...It almost looked the same actually. Thel looked at the Planet and now he was concerned. Is the ship going in circles? Have they just wasted time and went in the wrong direction? He was not all too pleased about this sudden appearance of the human world.

"What the...Navigators! What is this? It's Earth again! Have you done a circle?" Thel stood up. He was angry at the Elites navigating and piloting the ship. An Elite in blue got up and spoke.

"Shipmaster, please stay calm, this is not Earth! It's a different Planet, and we have no knowledge of its exact name!" The Elite spoke. He was definitely scared of Arbiter.

"State your name Minor" Thel asked the blue Elite.

"My name? Uh...it's Shin Tarscar sir" The navigator giving his name.

"Well Shin, you better hope you're right! Or there will be trouble" Thel warned Shin.

As the ship passed over the Planet, a ruthless threat flew towards the Carrier. They looked cloaked, and that they were. On the Shadow, An Elite operating the Radar caught the sight of 2 targets heading to their position. The Radar operator knew what they were and he had to shout out to the entire crew of the threat.

"BRUTE SHIPS, HEADING TOWARDS OUR POSITION!" the Blue Elite shouted at the top of his lungs. All Elites turned to his call and they knew what they had. Arbiter turned towards the Bridge window and saw 2 Brute ships uncloaking.1 Assault Carrier and 1 CCS Covenant Cruiser. Arbiter pressed a button to let out his voice on microphone so his words are heard throughout the ship.

"All Sangheili, Battle stations! We have 2 Brute ships heading towards us, prepare the defenses and release the fighters!"

Thel's voice was heard through the entire voice. The entire crew was activating the plasma batteries on the ship. Several squads of Seraph fighters were released from the hanger and went straight for the fighters coming out of the Brute ships. The 2 larger ships were splitting up to attack the Shadow from both sides. As the Shadow started passing between the 2 ships, the plasma batteries from all vessels started firing. The Seraphs started dog fighting around the 3 ships.

As bolts of plasma and torpedoes started pelting the Shadow, she lost her shields first. This was not a good sign, the hull was vulnerable.

"Shipmaster, our shields are down!" said one of the Elites navigating the ship.

"Damn it, tell our people on the batteries to aim for their weak spots, it's our only option!" Thel ordered. As the battle progressed, the Shadow took on damage. The Elite ship was losing some of its batteries to the other ships, but suddenly, the Brute Assault Carrier lost its shield and it now took on the Intent's heavy payload.

"Shipmaster, Brute Carrier shields are down!" said the Radar operating Elite. "Excellent, tell the batteries aiming for the Carrier to aim at the neck of it, we'll split it in half!" Thel ordered.

The batteries on the Shadow's right side all fired at the neck. Successful hits were made and slowly, but surely, the neck of Carrier was giving away. The ship's head violently ripped apart from the rest of the ship due to the vacuum of space, disabling and destroying the enemy Carrier. The Elites cheered in victory, but Arbiter suddenly remembered the Cruiser. He looked up. The Cruiser got sneaky and was now hovering above the Carrier. Its Cleansing beam was activating and prepared to strike at the belly of the Shadow.

"No...EVERYBODY, TAKE COVER!" Arbiter shouted across the room.

The Elites wondered why he asked this, but suddenly, a large shake happened through the room. The Cleansing beam struck the ship at the belly. After the attack, the Shadow slowly drifted down. Its engines were disabled. The Shadow was done for and slowly went down and starting to enter the atmosphere of the Planet they were fighting above. The Seraph dogfight ended moments after the Shadow's defeat, only a small number of Brute Seraphs survived. On the Cruiser's bridge, A Brute Chieftain watched as his enemy entered the atmosphere of the Planet.

**Phew, that's done, I hope this post well. I hope you enjoyed this, and things might start to get interesting in the next chapter. Review if you would like to but no spamming of flaming, just some nice comments or something that will help me. Annihilator out =)**


	2. Fates meet

On the planet's surface is a wonderful land of forests, mountains, oceans, lakes, plains, meadows and a lot of other peaceful land. The sun is bright as it is on Earth. The whole land is exactly like Earth for some reason, only, hardly any humans around. Still though, it is a peaceful planet. There is quite a few exotic creatures going around as well, but most of them are exactly the same as what Humans have. Rabbits, Deer, Fish in thousands colors and size, Insects and a whole lot more. This was exactly like Earth.

On a cliff near the edge somewhere, rising above a lake, letting the sun shine upon and hardly any clouds to spoil the moment with the breeze going along smoothly and the grass waving around peacefully, lies a creature not seen on Earth.

A very different and graceful creature with its belly lying on the grass, its tail in a snaky kind of position not moving an inch. Its wings folded into the sides to be more comfortable in the position the creature was in. The tip of the tail has a sharp scythe like object, no doubt can be used as a weapon. It is a black creature with a magenta underbelly and chest and neck. The wings have the same scythe like objects, like the tail, at the peak of them. The head has 6 ivory horns, 3 on each end and 3 more going down the back of the neck. It has choker jewelry and 2 bracelets on the front arms and another one for the middle of the tail. This creature is not even on Earth and it looked like a female. It was no doubt a Dragon.

As the Dragon peacefully sat enjoying the warm sun and gentle breeze, she was relaxing and enjoying the moment. She laid her head down slowly for a nap on the soft grass, sighing as she did. Absolutely nothing could break this moment...except for the strange roaring noise in the sky.

"Huh?" she woke up immediately to violent noise of something about to crash, like a large asteroid.

She stood on her paws and looked up in the sky to see the cause of the noise. Then she suddenly watches a fire that burned through. As it came through the clouds, it was clearly visible to the Dragoness. The metal of the object was also clear and hard to miss but the front of it was burning from the atmosphere entry. She gasped in amazement and fear at the same time as she did not know what the object was or where it came from. As it closed in on to the ground, the Dragoness took a few steps back as the ground started to shake.

At an instant, the anomaly crashed with a huge bang going off, and the Dragoness was blown back by force. The ground shook like an earthquake, but the explosion was as big as a small nuclear bomb. Smoke covered the air, blocking out the sun, taking over some of the land. The bang could have been heard for miles on end. As the smoke started to clear, the Dragoness got up from the violent force of the impact. She went back to the edge and saw the object that crashed smoking and scarred from the burnt entry.

"What…is that?" the Dragoness asked herself.

She was speechless. She looked around the wreckage to see if anyone was gonna check it out. No-one was going to come around and have a look at it. She raised a brow and decided to herself.

"Fine, I'll check it out myself…I'll tell the others later but one sign of danger, and I'm long gone".

The Dragoness took flight, lifting off from the edge of the cliff and flew straight towards the metal object with determination. As she flew closer, the metal object got incredibly larger, making the Dragoness look like an ant. As she landed next to it, there were metal pieces everywhere, and most of it looked very pretty. As she walked around it, the metal pieces soon turned to dead body piles. Her jaw dropped at the sight of unknown dead creatures.

"By the Ancestors...what are they?" she was paralyzed by the sight.

She slowly walked around the bodies and metal. Then she came to one of the creatures that were still breathing. She stepped back and got into a defensive position, head almost touching the ground, as if she was about to pounce on prey.

The creature looked up slowly, still lying down. His eyes opened to see his dead brothers lying all over the ground. He slowly crawled to a white one. He flipped over the body, to see one of his greatest friends of all covered in blood and not moving one bit.

"Rtas...no"

Arbiter was in both anger and sorrow. His best comrade who fought with him in his Arbiter career was dead in his hands.

"Rtas, I will avenge you brother...I will make each and every Brute suffers for what they have done...they have your blood as well as the rest of our brothers...and for that...THE BRUTES MUST DIE!" Thel shouted at the top of his lungs.

The dark grey clouds appeared and covered the earth and the crash site in a torrential rain. The Shadow of Intent was no more. Almost every Elite was dead. Arbiter laid Rtas's body in peace. Blood was almost everywhere. Some of it was going around Arbiter's legs as he was on his knees looking at the other bodies. His head bowed in shame, dishonor...and sorrow. It looked like he was about to cry for the first time in his life.

He then slowly turned to his left and saw the black Dragoness staring right at him. Her mouth was closed and she was no longer in her defensive position. Her emerald eyes stared into the Elite's orange eyes. Both of them stared at each other as if it was for hours but it was merely minutes. Arbiter looked at the rest of its body. Never in his life has he seen a creature this exotic. He looked at the special features such as the scythe like tail tip, claws on each paw, unknown markings on the forehead and left and right arms and even the base of her tail.

"Where did it get those markings?" Arbiter thought to himself.

"Where did it come from?" the black Dragoness thought to herself.

Arbiter slowly stood up making the Dragoness back up a few feet. Thel looked at every detail of the body and then thought,

"No doubt it's a female...I wonder if she's friendly?"

The Dragoness inspected every aspect of the two legged creature.

"Its legs are almost the same as the cheetahs of Avalar...only more bulky" she thought herself once more.

She also noticed the armour he was wearing, no doubt it looked ancient and ceremonial. He only had 4 fingers, 2 long ones and 2 short ones on each end of the hands. He had a strange object on his right thigh leg. It looked very strange with the same kind of markings as the armour the creature was wearing. His neck was quite long connecting his head to the shoulders.

She prepared to speak, but Arbiter beat it to her first.

"What is your name? What are you?" Thel asked the four legged beast.

"I will only answer if you tell me your name and what you are!" she replied back with a threatening voice, but Arbiter did not notice that bit. The Elite gave a small smile

"Playing hard to get I see...very well...my name is Thel Vadam...I am a Sangheili warrior, but you may call me an Elite. Also, call me Arbiter" Thel answered her.

Since it had not attack her yet and gave out his name and what he is, it is time to reveal her identity.

"Hello...Arbiter...my name is Cynder, I'm a black Dragoness" she gave out her identity.

"Very nice to meet you...Cynder. What is your race like...please tell me, I am interested" Thel wanted to know more about Cynder and her race. She did not want to answer back, but the Elite must be trying to be friendly.

"Well...my race, the Dragons, are powerful creatures born to wield elements of different types, depending on their color. Most of them are only allowed to wield one element, but I can use 4 and they are Poison, Fear, Wind and Shadow, due to my...my past" she spoke clearly with pride, but she sounded depressed on her last few words.

"Well...sounds like a very special race indeed..." Thel respected Cynder and the info she gave him.

She smiled, but now is her chance to ask him the same question, but another thought came on her mind.

"I wonder if Spyro or the Guardians know anything about Elites...where they came from?" she said in her head.

"Help..." called out an unknown weak voice.

It caught Arbiter's attention, and he ran to where the voice called out and Cynder followed behind him. He came to the ship navigator Shin Tarscar, who Arbiter warned before the Brutes showed up. Next to him was a Zealot classed Elite, wearing Crimson armour and very high tech. The Zealot was trying to pull his leg from under a large piece of metal.

The Zealot looked up and called out to Arbiter. "Thel! Help me here!" He shouted from the top of his lungs.

Thel ran towards the Zealot, leaving Cynder to watch the rescue unfold. Thel and the Zealot grabbed both of Shin's arms and pulled as hard as they could. Shin roared at the pain he was getting. It was still no use, he was budged in there tightly.

"By the rings! One more person might be enough to pull him out" the Zealot suggested.

Thel looked behind him. Cynder may have a thin like body structure, but her arms and legs were muscular enough to help pull Shin out from under the metal.

"Cynder! Please help us get our navigator out!" Thel was desperate to get Shin's leg out of the metal.

She was hesitant at first, but they were trying to save someone, and they needed her help. She ran over to them with quick speed and desperation.

When she got to the Sangheili group, the Zealot backed away.

"Agh! What is that thing?" the Zealot shouted. Cynder backed away in fear with her eyes shocked at the size the Elite.

"Is this really the time? HURRY UP!" Thel ordered the both of them.

Cynder wrapped her front arms around Shin's waist and the Zealot went back to his arm.

"Ok...3...2...1...PULL!" Thel counted down.

All 3 of them pulled as hard as they could to get Shin out. Shin roared at the top of his lungs which almost made Cynder back away, but she continued pulling as hard as she could.

A slight hint of movement meant Shin started coming out of the metal. Pure purple blood was obviously seen around his trapped leg. Cynder saw the sight and almost felt sorry for the Elite.

"C'mon, just a little more!" Arbiter said trying to boost morale.

Shin's leg was really starting to come out of the metal now. Slowly he kept on seeping out, only his foot remained. Everyone went in for the final pull.

"Now!" Thel shouted.

Suddenly, Shin's foot popped out of the metal piece. Everyone fell back. Arbiter and the Zealot got back up in the instant and went to help Shin up, leaving Cynder once again. She fell on her backside. When she got up, she saw the Zealot helping Shin walk again.

"Shin, can you walk?" the Zealot asked curiously.

"I...I think I can...thank you...all three of you" Shin thanked Arbiter and the Zealot and even Cynder.

"Which brings me to the question...what are you?" the Zealot asked Cynder.

She did not answer, she only backed up. She did not like the size of this Elite, it was twice the size of Arbiter, and its mandibles looked more drooped down, showing its teeth at the front. It was more muscular than both Arbiter and Shin combined.

"ANSWER ME YOU LITTLE BITCH!" the Zealot insulted Cynder.

She backed up even more, got defensive and started growling at the Zealot. The Zealot was getting impatient and was about to pull out an energy sword, but Arbiter got in front of him first.

"Fool! She has already answered to me, Cynder here is not a threat unlike the Brutes, and that goes for the rest of her race. We are stuck on this planet and so now you will have to stick to my orders, I'll explain about her later but right now, we need to leave this area!" Thel suggested.

The Zealot did not trust Cynder, but if Arbiter does, then he has no choice but to stick with it. Even it is a pain to think about.

"Ok then Thel...what do you suggest we do? It is too dangerous to stay with the Shadow, or even go so far with this rain bearing down on us?" Shin asked his superior.

"Ok...we need to find some shelter, then we will hold out until dawn, then...I have no idea..." Thel suggested.

The 2 Elites nodded at the suggestion, as it seemed the only way to go.

"If I may interrupt" Cynder said grabbing the Elites attention. She got a little stroke of fear with all 3 of them looking at her, but she continued, "I know a nearby cave where we can rest. We can stay there if you like?" Cynder asked the group of Elites.

Shin and the Zealot looked at Arbiter to say his decision. Thel has trusted Cynder ever since he has known about her and the Dragoness's species. So far, there is no threat between him and her. His decision was made.

"Ok then Cynder...show us this cave, and I will make sure...Zealot, what is your name damn it?" Thel does not know who the Zealot's real name is.

"It's Darst Kino sir" the Zealot revealing his name. Thel turned his back towards Cynder again.

"I will make sure Darst here will stay away from you, because I do not like the interactions with you two" Thel said to the both of them.

"Hmph, that's a fact" Darst murmured.

Cynder looked at Darst with a hint of threat. Darst looked back at her and let out a low growl. There was no doubt they did not like each other.

"Cynder, please lead the way" Arbiter asked her politely

She shifted her head back to Arbiter and nodded. Cynder turned around to lead them to the cave. The Elites followed close behind her, making sure to not get lost through the torrential rains.

They have been walking for a few minutes. The wreckage of the Shadow of Intent was still there, but a little bit far away now. It was scrap metal from this point of view. The shiny silver color of the mighty ship was now a dull grey. The lights that were on the ship before are not there anymore. The group is walking through a meadow where the rain covered all, but a mountain could be seen a few miles away. Something came on Shin's mind and strolled next to Arbiter.

"Thel, what if the Brutes try to search for survivors from the Shadow, there is no doubt in my mind that they are trying to find you for what you've done to them in the war. When they find out you have survived the crash, they will search this entire planet until they find and most likely kill you" Shin warned Thel

The Arbiter thought for a moment. He has killed many Brutes after the separation from the Covenant, including the Brute Chieftain Tartarus. The Brutes will spill his blood for the fallen Chieftain.

"If that time comes Shin...do not get in the way" Arbiter replied back to Shin with a commanding kind of voice.

"But Thel! They will rip you limb from limb, they will make you suffer until you die a slow death, we cannot allow that. You are a hero of our race!" Shin was worried because he has seen firsthand at what the Brutes do to their prisoners.

"If you try and help me, they will kill you on sight. I do not want to see any more of my brothers' die by the disgraceful hands of the Jiralhanae" Thel saying the Brutes real species name.

Shin sighed in defeat. Thel was telling the truth. Brutes kill Elites on sight, especially when they hunt in packs. Although Elites are strong and brave, Brutes are God's brainless, limb ripping creations. Their weapons are just as bad. Cynder heard the 2 Elites conversation and she started to get shaky and scared.

"That does not sound good. If what they say is true, there might be trouble coming" Cynder thought to herself.

They continued on through the meadow until they came to A large mountain with a cave on a side. This must be the cave Cynder told the Elites about.

"This is it, we can sleep here until dawn so get cozy" Cynder told them.

"Thank you Cynder" Thel giving his appreciation to her. She smiled back at the Elite.

All 4 of them entered the cave and got out of the dampness of the rain. The Elites wiped the rain off their armour with their hands while Cynder simply shook it off her body like a cat or dog would. Her wings got the worst of the rain so she lifted them up and flapped them to get rid of the water.

"So she can move her wings, she can fly then...incredible" Thel thought to himself. He was quite stunned of what she is capable of, and he would like to learn more about her.

Shin and Darst both sat next to each other in front of one of the caves walls. The cave is not that big, but it is enough for everyone to sleep in. The 2 Elites fell fast asleep in the instant, thanks to exhaustion and the events they went through. Arbiter was almost awake and watched Cynder go to a corner and she curled up there. Arbiter sat down just a few feet away from her, giving her personal space that she might want. She looked up to see Arbiter near her, but he paid no attention to her. He only stared at the wall, probably thinking the events he has been through. This was her chance to learn more about him.

"So" Cynder said to Thel, grabbing his attention and looking right at her. She remembered the object on his right thigh.

"What's that on your leg Arbiter?" she asked him about his blade.

"This?" Arbiter said, pulling the handle out. "It's called an Energy sword, every Elite warrior must wield one once they have become a master at using it" Arbiter explained the object. "Would you like to see it activate?" he asked Cynder.

She nodded slowly. He did a swift movement in his arm, causing the sword to activate and bringing out its light and energy of power. Cynder backed away from it instantly. She has never seen a sword that comes out if its handle like that. It looked like a deadly weapon as it is noticeable to see a tiny bit of lightning come off the sword.

"I...I'm at a loss for words...how does it activate like that and how is a sword even like that?" Cynder was curious about this weapon.

"The Energy sword is able activate at swift movement of the arm, letting the weapon itself know it is time to come out of its shell and release its energy upon the enemy...and the reason it does this is because my race is high technologically powerful, as you saw my ship crash onto your planet's surface. That was piece brilliant architecture of war, until...until that crash..." Thel started to remember the events in the space battle.

"I see...you must be a really strong and powerful race on your planet then" Cynder complemented the Elite and his race.

"We are...but I have never seen my planet in a long time unfortunately...the last time I saw was when I was quite young and that was years ago" Thel continued.

Cynder then saw the sad look in his eyes and she doesn't blame him, to not see your home in a long time is very depressing.

Arbiter gave another swift movement of his arm and the sword retracted back into its shell and placed it back on his right thigh.

"I'm going to get some rest now Cynder...wake me...when its dawn" Arbiter said to her.

She gave a small nod and the Elite turned his back to her and went into a deep sleep. Cynder just looked at the Elites. She is sleeping with another race she has little knowledge about, except what Arbiter told her. Then another thought came to her.

"I hope the guardians do not think this race as a threat, even if they are from a different world, does not mean we should make them a threat. I wonder if Spyro can sleep a night without me. I hope he is ok" Cynder thought to herself. She was talking about other Dragons.

She curled up tighter and laid her head on the hard cold ground, falling into a deep sleep afterwards.

**Now things have gotten interesting. I think I got Arbiter and Cynder to know each other well. I am probably going to take longer to make the next chapter, thanks to some complications at school. Anyways, I hope you enjoyed this chapter. I like making these things longer. Annihilator out =)**


	3. Safe as Houses

Far away from the cave where Arbiter and Cynder are sleeping, a large, stone like city, surrounded by giant walls for protection, stands in the peaceful lands. It is a very large city that looks like it recently saw war itself. Although, this was not plasma burns or glassed destruction, this city has seen a different war. Some buildings have collapsed but they were already starting to get reconstructed. Most of the large walls seem to have survived mostly intact, but there a few breaches. Whatever tried to take the city tried its best but failed.

The largest building that seems to have been untouched stands above almost the entire city and seems to be its very heart and foundation. A few stories up, a lone Dragon leans on its rooms window. This Dragon was more muscular than Cynder, and seems to be a little taller than her. Instead of being a black dragon, this one was purple. It had 2 yellow horns that seem to make up a little zigzag line, but they were big nevertheless. It had a yellow underbelly instead of magenta. The Dragon was waiting for someone to come back.

"Cynder, where are you? Why haven't you returned yet!" the Dragon said to himself.

Suddenly, a yellow glowing dragonfly flew up next to the purple dragon near his head.

"What are you doing up Sparx? You should be in bed" the Dragon revealing the Dragonfly's name.

"Uh, probably because my bro is still up I guess? So...what are you still doing up Spyro?" Sparx said in a kind of sarcastic tone, but also revealing the purple Dragon's name.

"I'm waiting for Cynder to come back, she has never been out for this long, that's not like her to stay out in the cold at this time of night…I'm starting to get worried Sparx" Spyro was anxious for Cynder to come home.

"Pfft, let the female-of-fright stay out in the cold, I'm sure she can withstand it, now come on! Close that window, you're bringing in the chills!" Sparx told his brother

Spyro bowed down his head. It is way too dark for Cynder to be out late. He had to find her, to make sure she was safe.

"Sparx, I am going out there to look for Cynder, stay here. If the guardians come, tell them I am in the city walking around, clear?" Spyro told Sparx.

"Wait, what? You can't go out, you don't what's out there, and besides, didn't you hear that loud noise this morning? Who knows what the heck that was!" Sparx trying to persuade Spyro from going out in the night.

"I have to find her, she could be in danger! Now, stay here and do what I said, if you tell them I'm out looking for her, you're going to be kicked out of the room, clear Sparx?" the purple Dragon warned Sparx.

"Ok..." Sparx gulped.

Spyro turned back to the window and took off through it. He flew out in the dark night, with Sparx watching him from the window.

"Take care dude" Sparx said quietly, hoping Spyro would come back without blood on him.

Meanwhile, back at the cave, Arbiter, Cynder and the 2 other Elites were still in a deep slumber. It was very quiet. Arbiter then slowly woke up to a strange engine noise. He yawned and shook off the rest of his sleep.

"What is that abomination of a noise?" he whispered.

As the noise got closer, it became clear to him what it was. It's something he had feared since leaving the Shadow of Intent's wreckage.

"Banshee...must be a Brute one, looking for survivors...honor be damned if that beast finds us here!" Arbiter said quietly.

The Banshee had a searchlight looking around below, to search for stray Elites. The Brute inside was anxious to find them. He was bigger than an average Elite and its rank must be minor.

"Where are you Arbiter? I only want to tear you into bloody ribbons!" the Brute shouted inside the cockpit of the Covenant machine.

As the Banshee passed over the cave, Arbiter stuck close to the wall to make sure he does not get spotted. Luckily, Brutes are quite stubborn to even look in places where Elites could be hiding. The Banshee passed over the cave without spotting the Elite, to Arbiter's relief anyway.

The danger has now passed over. Arbiter walked out of the cave and watched the Banshee keep on searching. It looked around the meadow with no luck.

The Brute roared in defeat, as it has had enough of searching, so he flew the Banshee back up into the sky to return to the Cruiser. Thel watched it leave. It was obvious the Brutes have found the Shadow of Intent's crash site and now, they are searching the Planet for the stragglers.

Thel gave a heavy sigh of relief and walked back in the cave and sat back down in his spot. He had to think for a moment.

"Now that the Brutes know where the crash site is, there is no doubt they will be searching all over the planet until they find him and the other 2 Elites. I am also concerned Cynder and her race. If the Brutes find out she has been trying to keep us away from them, they will try and kill her...I do not want her to suffer for our faults, she does not deserve it! There has to be a way to stop them...I will figure it out some other time" Arbiter said to himself and went back to sleep.

Little did he know, one of Cynder's emerald eyes were just about open. She has been eying Thel since he walked back in the cave, so she does not know the existence of the Banshee that passed over the cave, but she did hear what Arbiter said. Cynder started to consider Arbiter as a friend if he was concerned for her safety. She smiled and closed her eye and went back into sleep.

Elsewhere, Spyro was still looking for Cynder. He was far enough away from the city not even seeing it from his point of view. He was getting very cold thanks to the freezing temperature from flying in the air for too long. At this rate he was going to catch a cold, but with determination, he will find Cynder to make sure she is safe.

"It's getting way too cold for me to stay up in the air for any longer...I've got no choice, I have to call for her and hopefully I won't attract any more attention than Cynder's" Spyro suggested to himself.

He stopped and hovered in the air. He breathed in to make his call to Cynder as loud as possible.

"CYNDER!" at the top of his lungs, Spyro shouted as loud as he could to get Cynder to notice.

Back at the cave, Cynder and the Elites were still asleep. Suddenly, Spyro's call to Cynder reached the cave. Cynder woke up slowly. She opened her mouth to let out a big yawn. She stretched out her entire body like a cat. Now, she wondered who called her name.

"I wonder who that was...that voice sounded familiar to me..." Cynder said to herself.

Cynder looked around and saw Arbiter and the other Elites were still sleeping like big babies. She gave a small grin at the Elites sleeping positions. Darst and Shin slept next to each other snoring quite loudly. Arbiter was the only quiet one, who had his legs stretched out and his arms crossed with his head lowered to his chest. Cynder gave a small smile to Thel.

"CYNDER!" the voice called out again.

Cynder finally realized whose voice it was and ran out of the cave and shouted back in return to let the voice know where she is.

"SPYRO! I'M OVER HERE, NEAR THE CAVE!" she shouted back at the purple Dragon.

Spyro instantly heard her shout back, so he trailed her voice to her location by flight.

"I'm coming Cynder!" Spyro shouted back.

Cynder was pleased to hear Spyro again. As of now, he was flying towards her.

But Cynder was not the only one who heard Spyro's call. A nearby Banshee that was also searching for Elites heard the shouting, so it was now heading to that location as well.

Cynder scanned the sky for Spyro. After a couple of moments, she saw Spyro high in the air. She had to call him once more.

"SPYRO! DOWN HERE!" she shouted out.

Spyro looked down and saw the cave with the black dragoness standing outside of it, even though she was barely visible in the night. He swopped down like a bird of prey attacking from above. He landed hard on the meadow but he never took a scratch and ran to Cynder. She watched Spyro ran at her, as he was relieved to see that she was ok. Spyro stopped right in front of her and nuzzled her cheek.

"Oh Cynder...I was worried about you!" Spyro was almost out of breath from flying all the way here as well as running.

"I'm fine Spyro...I'm fine" Cynder assured him.

Suddenly, an engine noise was heading towards them. Both Dragons turned to see a white light heading towards them with speed.

"What...what is that?" Cynder asked Spyro.

"I...don't know" Spyro was clueless as well.

As the light got even closer, it became clear it was not what they expected. The Banshee stopped right in front of them and landed nicely on the ground. The Dragons were shocked at what they were looking at. What was this monstrosity? Where did it come from?

As the engine turned off, a hatch at the back of the Banshee opened for the pilot to get out. Something pretty big was walking towards the Dragons. At that instant moment, a minor ranked Brute was staring at the Dragons with a hungry look in its eyes. Those evil orange eyes were much brighter than Thel's. The 2 young Dragons did not know what they were looking at.

"Huh...must be the native species to this Planet...Beasts! Tell me where the Elites are or I will rip your flesh apart from your bones!" the Brute asked in a violent, threatening way.

Cynder had fear strike into her heart. Spyro got in front of her and got defensive, protecting Cynder. The Brute roared in anger

"TELL ME WHERE THE BLOODY ELITES OR I WILL KILL THE BOTH OF-" the Brute was interrupted by so by a rock that hit his back.

The Brute turned around to see Arbiter standing in front of him. Thel had an Energy sword out in his right hand.

"ARBITER! THE CHIEFTAIN WOULD LIKE TO HAVE A WORD WITH YOU ABOARD THE CRUISER!" the Brute was ready to fight Arbiter to the death.

"All your Chieftain is going to get is a dead Brute on his ship. I am not letting you touch those Dragons!" Thel threatened the Brute.

"I will avenge the Prophets and Tartarus by spilling your blood Arbiter!" the Brute went berserk on Arbiter and ran at him like a freight train.

"That's it...your anger will be the cause of your death you brainless ape" Arbiter prepared to kill the berserk Brute.

The 2 Dragons only watched in awe as 2 creatures not from their home try to kill each other. As the Brute was about to grab Arbiter, the Elite ducked under the Brute's strong arms and pushed his sword into the Brute's unprotected chest. The Brute felt a fatal stab to his gut. He could not breathe. Red and blue blood slowly seeped out of the Brute's chest and backside. It coughed up even more blood with its last breath. Arbiter pushed the dead Brute's body on the ground with a grunt from his voice. The Brute's anger was the cause of its demise.

Arbiter stared at the body for few moments. With a swift move of his right arm, Arbiter retracted the sword. He walked away slowly from his enemy's lifeless body. The Elite walked up to the Dragons. They could still not believe what just happened. Arbiter was the first to speak.

"We should head back into the cave...I do not want to see that creature no more" Arbiter said in a low voice.

He went back inside the cave without speaking another word. Cynder looked at the dead Brute again, and then followed Arbiter into the cave with Spyro travelling behind her.

When Arbiter sat back down in his spot, eyeing from across the cave was Shin and Darst, who were standing right there. No doubt they saw what just transpired. The Dragons then entered the cave. Cynder lay down near the wall of it. Spyro lay down next to her. He then stared at each of the Elites, not knowing what they were. Arbiter was, once again, the first speak.

"So Cynder...do you not want to introduce your friend here?" Thel asked her, wanting to know who the purple Dragon was.

"Oh right...Spyro; this is Arbiter...Arbiter, Spyro" Cynder introducing the two.

"Good to meet you Dragon" Thel greeted Spyro politely.

"Uh...yea, it's nice meet you...but what are you exactly?" Spyro asked Arbiter curiously.

"Well Spyro...I am a warrior of the species called the Sangheili...you can just call us Elite for short. That blue armored Elite over there is Shin Tarscar" Thel introduced Shin.

"An honor to meet you Dragon...I guess" Shin greeted himself but with a little bit of shyness.

"And the larger one in crimson armour is Darst Kino...be careful he is not the happy kind of Elite" Arbiter introduced Darst.

"Don't get too close Dragon" Darst warned Spyro. The purple Dragon gulped at the size of the Elite.

"So...how come your here Spyro?" Thel asked Spyro politely, but firmly.

"I came to here to see if Cynder was ok...she does not usually stay out of the city for too long, so I was worried...I just had to find her" Spyro explained his presence here.

Cynder turned to him. He was concerned about her and he risked his life to come find her. Her heart was beating a little bit faster.

"I see...well from my perspective, you two do make a cute couple" Thel gave a grinning kind of expression.

Both Dragons then turned away from each other and blushed in embarrassment, but Cynder was smiling about it while Spyro still felt embarrassed. Thel got a little chuckle out of it.

"Arbiter, is it really the time for the time for this. By the damned God's, A Brute just tried to kill you and you complement another race's relationship?" Darst was quite angry about Arbiter just forgetting the events with the Brute.

"Darst, the Brute was pathetic and brainless, it was an easy challenge for me to handle, and let me have a little fun once in a while, it's been long since I even get to have small chuckle!" Thel was right. It has been long since he has had a good laugh, thanks to the Human-Covenant war.

Darst only gave a deep sigh and sat back down.

"Um, actually, we are just close friends, aren't we Cynder?" Spyro turned to her.

"Uh...yea...just close friends" Cynder sounded a little disappointed. She then focused her attention to Arbiter.

"Brute? Is that what that monster was?" Cynder asked Arbiter curiously.

Arbiter sighed at her question. He was hoping the Brutes would not find the Dragons but it was already futile. To him, the night was going to get even longer.

"Ok...you might want try and get comfy, it's going to be a long story" Arbiter was going to tell his entire story about the Human-Covenant war and the Brutes.

Thel told Cynder and Spyro about the events he went through, from commanding vast armies in the Covenant to the stripping of his rank and the Elite separation from the Covenant and their alliance with the Humans. The 2 Dragons listened closely about this war and Arbiter's experience in the Covenant. He told them about his shaky friendship with the Spartan known only as Master Chief. He also told them about his battle with the Brute Chieftain Tartarus and the killing of the Prophet of Truth, zealous leader of the Covenant. He even gave out more info about Brutes, revealing that they are bitter rivals of the Elites. While Elites had honor, the Brutes were violent beasts of destruction. Thel also told the Dragons about the Halo rings and the Ark, telling them if these rings were activated, all life in the galaxy would have been wiped out from existence except for the Flood, the parasitic race that could infect any living organism. Thel continued on for hours. The 2 Elites were asleep once again, but Cynder and Spyro were still wide awake, absorbing the Arbiter's experience as he told them. Without Spyro noticing, Cynder laid her body against him and put her head against his neck. She was quite cold and she wanted some of Spyro's warmth.

As Arbiter finished up, he explained his presence here on the Dragon's Planet. They both then knew why they were here. It was all an accident.

"...And that's basically it...and that's also why I am here, my ship was heading home, but the Brutes took us down. I apologize if I have bored you" Thel finished talking.

"Don't apologize, I listened to every word. It sounded like a very deadly conflict indeed" Spyro respected the Elite's experience.

Cynder also heard every word. She was still leaning against Spyro, so she closed her eyes and enjoyed the moment.

Arbiter then looked to Spyro's left side. He saw Cynder just relaxing and enjoying herself.

Spyro was wondering why Arbiter stared on his left side. He looked left himself and froze instantly as the black Dragoness was leaning against most of his body. He wanted to get up from the situation but he could not resist watching Cynder lean on him. It made him blush a little, but he was happy to make her comfortable. Arbiter gave a smiling expression. He then looked outside the cave to see the sun rising. He also noticed the Brute's Banshee was still there and Thel got an interest in to it.

He got up and walked outside the cave, leaving the 2 Dragons and the 2 Elites inside the cave. Arbiter walked up to the Banshee. The purple attack craft looked the same as an Elite Banshee. Looks like the Brutes were too lazy to reconfigure it to their kind of technology. Arbiter looked inside the Banshee. The controls were intact, but the Brute smell was still there...and it smelt like Earths biggest garbage bin.

Thel instantly backed away from the foul stench of the cockpit. He came to the front to see its plasma cannons and fuel rod gun still intact. As soon as the stench was gone, it looked ready to fly. He gave an evil kind of expression.

"Thanks Brute...I am going to need this" he said to the decomposing corpse of the Brute.

This gave Arbiter another idea. He was going to salvage what he could from the Brute. He walked over to the rotten corpse. Thel held his breath to search for weapons and equipment. As a result, He found 2 Spikers, 1 Plasma rifle, 1 Plasma grenade and 2 Spike grenades. Thel smiled at the salvaged weapons.

"Foolish Brute...you could have used these against me, but anger and vengeance clouded your mind" Arbiter said to the corpse and walked away.

"Strange, most Brutes would always take a Brute shot with them, I wonder where it...oh" Thel spoke to himself as he came around to the back of the Banshee again and saw a Brute shot leaning on its side in the cockpits seat.

"How could I have missed that?" Arbiter completely missed spotting the Brute shot, so he took from the seat and put it on his back.

It held there. He placed the Sticky grenade next to his energy sword handle and placed the Plasma Rifle on his left thigh. He took the Spikers and Spike grenades to the cave. He saw the 2 Elites still sleeping. Thel walked up to the both of them and kicked them to wake them up.

"Agh! What was that for?" Darst shouted, after being rudely awaken.

"Shut up, you were supposed to get up at dawn anyways. Now take this damn it!" Arbiter threw down A Spiker and Spike grenade at Darst and Shin.

"Don't tell me we have to wield these ugly things?" Darst questioned Thel.

"If you don't want Brutes to be shooting at you while you have run at them with an energy sword, yes" Thel was getting sick of Darst's moaning.

Spyro has been up almost all night, including his flight here. Cynder slowly opened her eyes to find herself still leaning on him. She got up instantly and blushed, embarrassed that she was up against him for a good hour. They then turned to see Thel walking up to them.

"Ok, I want leave this area as soon as possible. Spyro, where is this city you told me last night?" Arbiter asked the purple Dragon.

"You...want to head to Warfang?" Spyro slowly asked.

"I am afraid that the Brutes will soon find the corpse here and will start to get violent against the races on this planet, we need to find somewhere safe and this city of Warfang as you call it, might be our best bet" Thel explaining the situation.

Spyro thought for a moment and remembering the experience of the fight between the Brute and Thel, he was about to say no. Suddenly, Cynder walked next to him and gave her thought.

"C'mon Spyro, I am sure the guardians will let them into the city. They are not the threat, the Brutes are. They are also stuck on our home, they have nowhere to go! Please make the right decision" Cynder begged him.

Spyro gave a sigh and answered.

"Alright, I guess they can come" Spyro said to the Elites.

"Thank you Spyro. I hope to return the favor soon" Arbiter thanked the Dragon.

"An entire city with Dragons...could my day get any worse" Darst said to himself.

"How about Brutes chasing you with Gravity hammers?" Shin overhearing Darst's moaning.

Darst turned to his right and growled at Shin. The blue armored Elite backed off.

"Ok, Shin, you pilot that Banshee and stick close to us from the air and keep an eye out for unexpected visitors" Arbiter ordered Shin.

"But, the smell! It is unbearable!" Shin moaned.

"Tough Unggoy shit! Get in that Banshee NOW!" Arbiter cursed at Shin.

Shin sighed deeply and went over to the Banshee.

Arbiter turned to Cynder and Spyro.

"Please Dragons, lead the way" Arbiter asked them.

Both Spyro and Cynder nodded and turned to lead the Elites to the city of Warfang.

As soon as the group started their journey to the city, above, Shin piloted the Banshee quite closely. The journey was going to be quite long but as sooner they get there, the better. Since Shin was high in the sky, he would be able to see any threat heading towards them. They were quite far enough from the cave and the Shadow's wreck was now nowhere to be seen. Once they cleared the Meadow, a Forest was seen in front of the group. Arbiter looked up at the Banshee. Shin would not be able to see the group with the large trees everywhere.

"SHIN! GET DOWN HERE!" Arbiter shouted out to the Banshee.

Shin heard Arbiter's shouting and descended on to the ground and exited the Banshee.

"What is it Arbiter?" Shin asked Thel

"The Forest is too dense for you to see us. You will have to meet us on the other end of it, I am sure we will keep on heading straight so just cut a line over it and meet us on the other side" Thel explained to Shin.

"Ok, good luck then" Shin bided to the group.

Shin jumped back into the Banshee and flew over the forest with high speed.

"Ok, please keep on going you two" Arbiter said to the Dragons. Darst did not care about what Shin was doing.

The group travelled into the forest. It was quite damp and cold. Insects were heard all around. Spyro and Cynder ignored the insects but Thel and Darst were wary of their whereabouts.

Suddenly, a twig snapped not far from the group. Arbiter and Darst were on full alert. Cynder and Spyro also noticed something was not right. Someone has been following them.

"Where is it?" Darst was ready to defend himself.

"Where do you hide cowards?" Thel shouted out.

"Who do you think it was?" Cynder asked Spyro.

"I don't know" Spyro replied.

Suddenly, a green mist was fired at Darst's head, instantly dropping him into a deep sleep.

"What the?" Cynder jumped from the attack.

"Darst? DARST?" Arbiter shouted at the knocked out Elite.

Another green mist shot fired at Arbiter and he suffered the same fate as Darst. Both Elites were in a deep sleep.

"Who's there?" Spyro shouted.

Out behind the trees came was a cheetah standing on 2 legs holding a bow. Spyro and Cynder knew who this was.

"Hunter, why did you do that?" Cynder revealed the cheetah's name.

"I am sorry if you knew these two...I don't know what they are, but Warfang is on alert. You must come with me and bring those creatures with you" Hunter asked the Dragons.

**Hmm, maybe it did not take as long as I thought it would. Oh well, anyways, I hope you enjoyed it. =)**


	4. A History of the Dragon war

"Uh...my head...feels like a Hunter whacked me with its shield" he spoke to himself with a low voice.

He slowly opened his eyes to see that he was in a room. He laid on a soft bed. The Elite got himself up and scanned the room. The room had a window. It revealed that it was at least mid afternoon. Thel stood up from the bed and walked to it. He can see that the building he was inside stood over an entire city. Not of metal buildings, but of stone. Arbiter came to a conclusion.

"This must be Warfang" he whispered.

He scanned the room even more. It only had a bed and door, but there was something on the ground. It was a plate that had meat on it. It was unclear where it came from. Next to the plate was a piece of paper. He picked up the paper to find it is a note. Arbiter began to read it.

"Arbiter, when you read this, please follow the 2 guards that are outside the room, all can be explained in the meantime, From Cynder. P.S, I am so sorry that this happened Arbiter".

Arbiter dropped the note on the ground. He just noticed that his weapons were gone, even his energy sword.

"By the gods...I wonder how Cynder even wrote it" he puzzled himself.

He looked at the door. Unlike other doors he has seen previously like metal and shield doors, this one was wooden, but at least there was a handle. He opened it to find 2 Moles standing in front of it. These must have been the guards Cynder wrote about. Shocked to see that the Moles were much smaller than him, Arbiter thought there would never be warriors smaller than a Grunt...but he was wrong.

"I am guessing you are the ones that is supposed to take me to some place?" Arbiter asked them

The Moles were quite shaky, probably because they have never seen an Elite before, so it was no surprise they were afraid of him.

"Yes...yes sir...pl...please follow us!" One of the Moles stuttered.

Both of them were wearing some kind of old warrior armour that has weak material compared to Thel's Arbiter armour.

"Well then, lead the way, I want answers" he asked them firmly.

The Moles took Arbiter through a hall. They walked down a large stairwell and went walked through another hall, only this time, its larger. They came to a large door. Arbiter was amazed by the size of this door. It was much bigger than a Wraith, but no bigger than a Scarab from his perspective.

"Well, th...this is where we...we part ways Mr...whatever your name is" The same Mole that talked before told Thel.

The Elite nodded and watched the Moles fast walking away from him. He would not be surprised to know that they were trying to get away from him. He turned back to the door and opened it. It was much brighter in this room than it was in the halls or stairs. Thel closed it behind him. He looked around and saw Darst standing in front of 3 very large Dragons, one yellow with a dark blue underbelly, one green with a pale yellow underbelly and one light blue with a white underbelly. Arbiter was shocked at the size of these Dragons, He has only seen few creatures with such a size. Arbiter also saw Spyro and Cynder standing next to them with a small glowing Dragonfly, and next to them was a strange figure wearing a hood and cloak.

He walked over to the group. He passed multiple large pillars and saw a few statues with Dragons on top. Arbiter also noticed a few pictures containing Dragons, Moles and some other unique creatures that Thel does not know. He stopped in front of the Dragons right next to Darst. The crimson Elite turned to Thel

"Well you sure took your sweet time!" Darst must have been waiting patiently for him.

"How long have we been out?" Thel asked the crimson Elite

"Well you was out for at least 5 hours, I woke 2 hours before you. Those little furballs brought me here!" Darst was talking about some Moles.

Arbiter looked at the Dragons. They were obviously much bigger close up. He looked like a Mole compared to them.

The green Dragon was the first to speak.

"State your names and race, then explain why your here" the green Dragon spoke a very deep voice, it could be heard throughout the entire room.

It was obvious that Cynder or Spyro have not told them. Arbiter stepped out in front of Darst.

"My name is Thel Vadam, also known as the Arbiter, I am a warrior of the race called the Sangheili, but call us Elites for short. Behind me is Darst Kino, a Zealot classed warrior of the same race" Arbiter gave out their names and saving Darst from speaking to the Dragons.

"And your purpose for being here?" the light blue Dragon asked Arbiter. This one spoke a more lighter voice.

"Purpose? It was an accident that we ended up here. Our ship was attacked and we crashed here. Most of my crew members are dead. Only Shin, Darst and I survived...wait...where is Shin?" Arbiter suddenly realizing Shin was not here.

"The blue one is safe, he and that metal creation are outside the building, you will see them when we learn more about you" the green Dragon explained.

"Ok...that is fine I guess...anyways, Cynder here was the first of your kind to find us, she was the one that lead us to safety. Spyro was the one that let us have access to the city, until somebody took us out!" Arbiter said and looked at Hunter who was the figure in the cloak and hood.

Hunter looked down on the ground as the Elite stared at him. Arbiter started to think it was that figure who put him and Darst into that sleep.

"I see. We apologise if Hunter did anything serious during the attack, We don't usually see kinds like yours around here. You may call me Terrador. The yellow one on my right is Volteer and the blue one on my left is Cyril. You may call us the guardians" Terrador said revealing his name as well as Volteer's, Cyril's and Hunter's.

"I accept the apology, but please do not put us out like that again. I am glad to have met you though" Thel warned the guardians.

Terrador nodded and then turned to Spyro and Cynder.

"As for you Cynder, I am glad that you were able to help these...Elites. There was no doubt they needed help, but it would have also helped if you did report back when you had a chance" Terrador told Cynder.

"I'm sorry, it will never happen again" Cynder apologised to the much older Dragon.

"There is no need for that Cynder, you came back with them safely anyhow. As for you Spyro, you should have stayed here, it's too dangerous for anyone to wander outside the walls of the city, let alone yourself" Terrador said firmly to Spyro.

"I'm sorry Terrador, but I was concerned for Cynder's safety" Spyro explained his reason for flying away from the city.

"I am glad that you like to look out for Cynder, but she can sometimes take care of herself...besides, Sparx is not good at lying" Terrador then turned to Sparx.

Spyro also turned to him, giving a not so happy expression to the little glowing Dragonfly. Sparx only gave a big grin.

"Hunter? so you're the one that dropped us in that forest!" Darst turned to the cheetah.

Hunter looked to see the Zealot staring right at him. Darst wanted to get up close and personal to the Cheetah.

"I'm terribly sorry, but I did what I had to do!" Hunter explained. Darst did not want to hear any reason from Hunter.

"You are going to be sorry when I am done with you!" Darst started to walk up to Hunter, who backed away from the much bigger and more muscular Sangheili.

The Elite zealot stomped in rage as he walked closer to Hunter, but the Arbiter got his right arm in front of Darst, stopping his war path against Hunter.

"Are you trying to get yourself killed? They did what they had to do, we have bigger problems right now than this incompetent argument!" Thel shouted.

Darst gave a dirty look at the Cheetah but he backed off nevertheless, to Hunter's relief.

"What problems do you mean exactly?" Cyril asked Arbiter.

"By problems, I mean the race called the Jiralhanae, also known as Brutes, are trying to kill us, because of the war we have had with them. There is a possibility that they have found the ship and are now searching all over the Planet" Thel explained even further.

"This does not sound good Terrador" Cyril whispered to the green Dragon.

"Unbelievable, Unexpected, I have never seen such a magnificent race like this one before!" Volteer exclaimed in excitement to see Arbiter and Darst.

Thel raised a brow in confusion to the yellow Dragon and Darst just dropped in his mandibles, like a Human drops his jaw, in surprise.

"Why do you talk so fast?" Darst asked curiously.

"It's something he does every day" Cyril explained.

"Excuse me?" Volteer turned to the light blue Dragon.

"You heard me" Cyril said without looking at Volteer.

"So, your race has been in a war too?" Terrador asked Arbiter.

"Yes...wait, why do you ask?" Arbiter was curious as if the he did notice a few buildings have collapsed around the city.

"The reason? It's because we have had a war of our very own" Terrador revealed why the city was damaged.

Arbiter instantly became shocked. While he was fighting in the Human-Covenant war, another war took place here. Darst gave a small grin.

"See? not every race can be peaceful. Quite ironic" Darst sneered.

"You mean...battles took place on this Planet as well?" Arbiter was curious to learn about this war.

"I'm afraid so. It lasted for generations. Believe it or not, it ended just a few days ago, before you crashed here" Terrador explained.

Arbiter turned to the young Dragons. From the look in her eyes, it seemed that Cynder did not want Terrador to tell the Elites about their war. Spyro put his left wing over her to comfort her during this time. They both moved to lay down next to the pillar closest to the group. Terrador walked out from the group of guardians and sat close near the Elites to explain about this war.

"Sit tight Arbiter, this is going to be long" Terrador asked Thel.

Both of the Elites just decided to sit on the floor as there are no nearby chairs. They braced for the tale that was about to be told.

Terrador explained this war that the Dragons had. He told Arbiter and Darst about how a purple Dragon, like Spyro, named Malefor, came to power and controlled the dark forces of this world. Only once every ten generations, a purple Dragon is born. There has only been 2, Spyro and Malefor. The war was bloody and terrible and for it to last this long, it was no doubt bringing the Dragons closer to extinction. The enemy were creatures driven by the desire to wipe out the Dragons, Moles, Cheetah's and everything else that was not part of Male for's army. He was also known as the Dark master. Terrador told the Elites about a raid on the eggs some 13 years ago. The creatures smashed and destroyed most of the eggs to further push the Dragons towards extinction. Only 2 survived. Spyro's egg was one and that was saved by a red Dragon known as Ignitus, who was also a guardian. He saved it by carrying it down to a river that leads to a swamp where the dark army would never find it. Cynder's was the other egg, whose was not so lucky. The dark army captured it and made the egg hatch for them. When Cynder was born, she was corrupted by the Dark master, forcing her to serve him.

Arbiter was shocked about this piece of information. He turned to Cynder who was covering her face to make sure the Elites did not see any tears, but Arbiter knew she was crying. Spyro tried to make her feel better, but no success was made.

Terrador continued. While Spyro was born and was raised by a family of Dragonflies, which is also how he met Sparx, Cynder grew at an unnatural rate thanks to the darkness, causing her to grow to an adult form and hiding her hatchling form. She attacked many places around the Planet and most of these attacks were successful. Though the years went on, when Spyro grew older and gained power, he was able to defeat Cynder and revert her back to her more younger form. As the war continued, Cynder sided with the guardians. Eventually, a part of the dark army called the Apes captured Cynder for her betrayal against them. Their leader, Gaul, was going to give her to the Dark master to decide her fate. Spyro was able to kill Gaul but in cold blood. 3 years later, the 2 Dragons were released from a crystal that held them for those years. They both eventually fought a large Golem, that is believed to be bigger than a Scarab walker, and defeated it. The Golem and most of the Dark master's army were responsible for damaging the city. In the end, Spyro and Cynder fought against Malefor and, while suffering a few injuries, defeated him. But while that happened, a creature known as Destroyer walked among the Planet, forming the circle of Annihilation. This made the entire planet fall apart, but at the centre of the planet, Spyro somehow was able to draw enough power to pull the pieces of the planet back together before it went into the depth of space. Both Cynder and Spyro managed to live through the experience and return to the city safely. The war ended with Malefor gone, but at a huge cost. The guardian Ignitus died, and the Dragons have been pushed dangerously close to extinction, which explains why there are very few other Dragons in the city. Terrador finished up explaining about this vicious war by giving out other info besides Spyro and Cynder's experience.

Afterwards, both Elites got up and stretched. Arbiter felt very sorry for the Dragons. Their war may had not much technology as the theirs did, but it lasted much longer than the Human-Covenant war. Darst did not give as much emotion as Arbiter did, instead, he did not even give a damn if about this race's near extinction event. Arbiter turned back at Cynder and Spyro. It looks like Cynder stopped crying a few moments ago with her head now between her paws, lying on the floor. Sparx was relieved to know that it was over and he flew right in front of Arbiter's face.

"Wait, green gigantor did forget to mention most of my heroic actions!" Sparx said with a cocky attitude.

"In your small stature, I don't think so light bulb, I would not believe that for a second" Arbiter said firmly to Sparx.

"Hey! watch that mouth dude, you would not like it if I gave you a piece of what I experienced" Sparx lipped back at the Elite.

"I don't have a mouth. I have mandibles light bulb" Arbiter said back, this time his voice more lower, and became a little threatening.

"Oh...well take this then!" Sparx said punched Arbiter's head armour.

Thel gave a grin. Sparx just hit his hand against a very hard piece of metal, and his hand was very, very small. He flew back held his right hand in pain.

"WHAT THE HECK? HE IS MADE OF METAL!" Sparx shouted, suddenly grabbing Spyro and Cynder's attention.

Arbiter then made a very obvious point by taking of his helmet, revealing his smooth skin and the rest of his head.

"I am not made of metal, I am made of flesh and bone like you, its armour that you punched" Arbiter said proving his point.

Sparx sighed in a humiliating defeat, while Arbiter placed his helmet back on his head with a smile.

"Enough! Arbiter, I am glad that you took the time to listen to our experiences. Please make yourself comfortable as you might be staying a while" Terrador offered the 2 Elites.

"It would be an honour to stay here...but once we find a way off here, we will be leaving immediately" Thel said to the 3 guardians.

"Very well. You are free to roam the city and explore it. Ignore any attention you might attract by the way, but do not under any circumstances, leave the city" Terrador warned the Elites.

Arbiter nodded and turned to find Darst in front of him with a not-so-happy expression.

"Once we do find a way off this planet...we are not spending anymore time here, understand?" The zealot was not happy about staying in the city.

"I understand but for now, try and respect these creatures, they have been through a horrifying experience" Thel asked Darst.

Darst growled having to obey this rule Arbiter gave him. He walked off unhappy about the situation. Arbiter was worried that Darst might do something drastic. At that moment, Shin appeared coming out from the main door. Darst just walked past Shin not caring about reuniting with him. Shin wondered why the zealot was in that mood. The blue Elite walked up to Arbiter.

"What's wrong with him" Shin asked Thel about Darst.

"The fool does not like the idea that we have to live here until we find a way off this planet. In any case, enough of him, what did you do with the Banshee and where is the weapons?" Arbiter asked Shin

"The Banshee is out the front of the building...and that has attracted a large crowd of these Moles. The weapons are a few stories down in an armoury. You're lucky that Cynder told me where you guys were after the event in that forest" Shin answered Thel's question with ease.

"Hmm...ok, we will leave the weapons where they are. Let's go, I want to look at more of this city...but first..." Thel turned around to ask the guardians a question of his own. Shin watched from a distance.

"Excuse me, what do you call this planet?" Arbiter asked them.

"It's called Earth Arbiter" Terrador answered.

Shock and confusion went through Arbiter's body. His pupil's thinned severely. Shin also heard, shocked to hear there are 2 planets with the name Earth. Arbiter shook it off and replied back at Terrador.

"Uh...right...thank you, that's all I needed to know" Arbiter turned walked straight to the door.

Cynder watched the Elites walk out the door. She also thought it was time to leave the building. She and Spyro both stood up.

"Are you going to be ok Cynder?" Spyro asked Cynder, after watching her feel depressed most of the time in this place.

"I'm ok...c'mon, we can take a walk if you would like to?" Cynder asked him.

"Ok. Let's go then" Spyro walked Cynder out of the large room. Cynder smiled at him.

They both walked out of the room. Sparx watched in disappointment as if he thought Cynder was spending more time with Spyro than he was with the purple Dragon.

Hunter also walked out of the room, leaving only the guardians and Sparx in the large room.

"What do you think Terrador?" Volteer said to him.

"Never in our history we have encountered another race from another world. But they do seem friendly, but we need learn more about them" Terrador suggested.

The other guardians agreed to this.

Outside the building's entrance, Thel and Shin walked out and saw the Banshee was still surrounded by Moles.

"Whoa...there is more than there was before" Shin was surprised that there was more of the furballs around the Banshee.

He turned to see Arbiter still a little bit traumatized about the Planet's name

"Arbiter...are you ok?" Shin asked him.

"Shin...my mind...is full of fucking crap" Arbiter cursed in Human language, surprising Shin when he used it.

**Ok, this one was a tough one to write, I hope it came out well. Thanks for the recent reviews, sure means a lot to me. The next chapter cannot be written tomorrow as I will be occupied with a backstage crew trying to get a performance for my school done but expect the next one during the weekend**. **By the way, thanks for any helpful advice. And I'm out =)**


	5. Meet the Grunts

Arbiter looked at the city with amazement. Asides from the bunch of Moles that surround the Banshee with interest, there were quite a few of them walking along the streets. It seems that they yet to invent transportation, but Thel can see a few golden cannons on the cities walls. He and Shin were in front of the main building of the city called the Grand Atrium. The building of stone was extremely large, at least 60 stories. he also noticed the busy, frantic areas of Moles walking along the streets. Very noisy too. But what Arbiter also noticed was that there was hardly a Dragon in sight. The future looked very grim for the Dragons. Thel was saddened by the thought, a peaceful race almost extinct.

"Well Thel, I will explore the city at my own pace, I don't think I will go far from the main building. I will see you sometime in the afternoon" Shin gave a farewell to Arbiter before walking through the streets of Warfang. Thel watched as his comrade walked into the busy streets.

"So...what to do first?" Thel asked himself before too going through the city.

Elsewhere, Cynder and Spyro got to the roof of the Atrium. They could see the entire city from where they were and even outside the walls. The sun was going to set soon, so time is going to be quite short for the two young Dragons.

"Hey Spyro" Cynder turned to the purple Dragon.

"Yes Cynder?" he replied politely to the black Dragoness.

"How about we fly to blacksmith. We can land and begin our little walk there, sound good?" Cynder suggested.

Spyro noticed she was a little excited for this, even though it was just a plain, simple walk. The blacksmith's building was a very quiet place. Hardly anyone went there after the war. In short, the area around it would be the perfect place for them to have some alone time. Spyro was a little nervous about this. He shook it off and answered to Cynder's suggestion.

"Yeah, sure. If you want to" Spyro replied.

Cynder gave a smile. She was the first to take off the large structure and Spyro followed close behind her. They flew over many other structures of the city. The crowds of moles start to get thinner as the young Dragons closed in on the blacksmith's building. They landed just out the front of it. They folded in their wings and looked around the area.

"Well, where to now?" Spyro asked Cynder.

She looked at the most peaceful of places and she found a perfect one. She saw a small grassy field, only a few metres away, where only one tree sat. Surrounding that little field were pathways. This was the perfect place for her to spend quality time with Spyro.

"How about over there? Where we can just enjoy the peace?" she asked him.

Spyro's heart was repeating quite rapidly. It always happens when he is alone with Cynder.

"All right then, after you" he offered the Dragoness.

She went in front of him and the two walked to the small field. While they were, Spyro began to go through the events with the war. One thought came to him when he and Cynder just defeated the Malefor. They were stuck at the centre of the Earth, while it was ripping itself apart. When he gathered his strength to put the world back together, he heard a faint voice. "I love you" It said. He did not know if it was really Cynder, or just some misunderstanding words. While he was puzzling, Cynder was having almost the same exact thought. She thought that since the world was being destroyed, she just had to say it. Now that they are still alive, what now? Did he hear her? Even if he did, did he love her back? It was stuck inside her head, unwilling for it to go unanswered. As they reached the field, Cynder laid down next to the tree on her side, exposing her warm underbelly, and relaxed. Spyro simply just laid down on the grass next to her.

"Ah...it feels so good to not be fighting anymore" Cynder said as she enjoyed the gentle breeze.

Spyro smiled at her. He could not resist looking at Cynder while she was so calmed and relaxed. He just wanted to tell Cynder how he feels towards her. He could never tell her these feelings because of the battles and some situations. But now that they were alone, this was his chance.

"Cynder, can I tell you something? It's what I've wanted to ask you for quite some time now" Spyro was nervous about this.

"Yes Spyro?" she said back. Could this be that moment she has been waiting for?

The purple Dragon gulped in fear. What would she say back to him? what would she do? He was about to say the words he has been always wanting to say to her.

"I...I..." Spyro stuttered.

Suddenly, Sparx flew out of nowhere. He appeared right in between them. Cynder was furious that the pesky Dragonfly appeared. This made Spyro stop his sentence. He was relieved, but disappointed at the same time.

"Hey Spyro, come back to the Atrium, I need you, Blacky, you stay here" Sparx said, insulting Cynder in the process

Cynder growled at Sparx, exposing her white, sharp teeth. She really did not like Sparx all that much.

"All right, I'm coming" Spyro said, with a hint disappointment.

Cynder turned to Spyro and she suddenly stopped growling.

"But Spyro..." she obviously did not want him to go.

"I'm sorry Cynder...I'm so sorry...maybe I can tell you about it tomorrow" Spyro said as he walked around a corner with Sparx, disappearing from her sight.

"But...I want you to tell me now..." Cynder was now depressed. She was waiting for those words to come out, but they didn't.

With great timing, Arbiter was just passing by. The Elite looked at the small grass field and suddenly saw Cynder all by herself with her head between her paws. Arbiter decided to go see her. He forgot to thank her for leading him away from the crash site.

"Hey Cynder" he greeted her politely.

"Hi Arbiter" she lifted her head up.

"I forgot to thank you for letting me, Shin and Darst stay here, it was greatly appreciated" He thanked her

"That's ok. You guys were in great need of help anyway, so this is the best I could do" she replied back

"What are you doing here all by yourself?" Arbiter asked her.

"Oh me? I was just enjoying the alone time by myself" she lied, but Arbiter knew what was wrong with her.

"Spyro was here with you wasn't he?" he said to her while sitting down next to her.

She sighed and laid her head back down.

"Yes. Sparx came here and took him away from me. I really hate him. Spyro was going to say something to me. It could've been what I've waited for him to say my entire life!" Cynder was really depressed. Thel then came up with a conclusion.

"Cynder...you love him don't you?" Arbiter revealed her secret.

As much as she didn't want to admit it, she had no choice but to come clean.

"Arbiter...I love him more than anything in the world...he has been the one that has kept me going. He was the one who saved me from Malefor's evil. If he's gone from my life, I will find it hardly worth living. He is...my everything" Cynder, no doubt, had deep, emotional feelings for Spyro.

She would give anything to keep him safe from harm, even if it means taking her own life.

"I see. Well Cynder, I'd say when you get the chance to be alone with him, tell him how you feel" Arbiter said giving her advice.

"But I did, at the centre of the Earth. I said it to him, but I don't know if he heard me or not" she replied.

"Then you might have to tell him again. This time, make sure he hears you. Besides, you sometimes only get one chance to find love. This is your chance" Arbiter tried to be helpful as possible.

Cynder gave a moment to think about what Thel said. There was no question that he was right. She had to tell Spyro clearly this time. Only then she will find out if he loves her back.

"I guess so. Thanks Arbiter" Cynder was finally happy now.

"Anytime Cynder...anytime" he said whilst laying his back against the tree.

Meanwhile, above the atmosphere of the Planet, the Brute cruiser that sent the Shadow of Intent crashing was still looming over the planet. The Cruiser had its name at one of the spines at the front of the ship, but its crossed out, unable to see what it's called. Instead, another name took place below the crossed out one called "The Prophets vengeance", as it seems to reference the Prophet of Truth mostly.

Aboard were many different types of Brutes ranging from their armour colour, fur colour and size. At the bridge, some more higher ranked Brutes moved through the room. The most interesting one of them all must be the Chieftain. His height stood over every other Brute aboard the ship. He wears the same crimson/black armour that most other chieftains wore, with the exception of Tartarus, though, the major difference is that he also wore a black cape, with a symbol of the covenant in dark red. This particular chieftain had a very dull grey fur, which is respected by all Brutes for reasons unknown. He was also extremely muscular, and most definitely had the ability to rip an Elite in half. He size is comparable to Darst, but being a Brute, he was much stronger. The most interesting fact about this chieftain is that wields in his right hand, not a gravity hammer like most chieftains had, but the Fist of Rukt, a hammer that was once wielded by Tartarus.

As the Brute chieftain stared at the planet the ship was orbiting, another Brute wearing a yellow power armour, indicating he was a captain, walked up and stood behind the much bigger and superior chieftain.

"Sir, we have found evidence that the Arbiter has survived the crash of the Carrier" the Brute captain said.

The Brute did not turn around, instead, he just kept on staring at the Planet.

"And what kind of bloody evidence supports that the Arbiter survived such destruction?" the chieftain spoke with an extremely deep voice.

"We...have found one of our pack brothers dead...he died by an Energy sword to the chest. The corpse is at least a day old...and his weapons and Banshee are not in sight...and Arbiter's body was not found at the crash" the captain gave out the bad news.

The chieftain breathed in and out and slowly got bigger until he turned around and shouted.

"IT IS ALMOST IMPOSSIBLE FOR ANYONE TO SURVIVE A CRASH ONTO A PLANET LIKE THAT! THE ARBITER CAN'T STILL BE ALIVE!" the Brute chieftain's shouting was heard through the entire room. All Brutes were now staring at him.

"But, Chieftain Magnaruckus, we searched the entire ship. There was no Arbiter. It is to believe that he, and maybe a few other Elites, have survived, killed our pack brother and stole his Banshee and equipment" the captain continued, but also revealing the chieftain's name.

"Grr...CURSE THE SANGHEILI!" the chieftain held the Fist of Rukt in the air.

This only brought anger to the rest of the Jiralhanae. They all roared in rage and some of them almost went berserk in the chieftain's presence, but they were able to hold it. When the Brutes calmed down, a couple of Grunts, who were loyal to the Brutes, entered the room.

"Sir! Sir! We have found out that the Arbiter is still alive!" said the Grunt in green armour, indicating that his rank was similar to a Human Corporal.

"I already told the chieftain that you idiots, give us something more useful than that!" the captain shouted at them.

"Oh...well, do you want to know about the native species on the Planet?" the Grunt in orange armour asked the captain, his armour rank was similar to a Human Private.

"No! get out you little runts!" the captain pointed at the door leading out of the bridge.

The two Grunts just walked out of the bridge in shame. They exited with some Brutes staring at them with hungry looking eyes. As soon as the door shut, the little Grunts went down hall and turned a few corners that lead to the hanger bays. There they sat down by an armoury of plasma weapons, mostly of Brute origin. The green Grunt was the first to speak

"Yapflop, I think we made a huge mistake going with the Brutes. We had the choice to go home since the Prophet's are dead but no! I asked the stupid chieftain to stay and serve them...this is how we get repaid!" the green Grunt said to Yapflop.

"Yeah...maybe you did Jabjab, I mean, there is no other Grunt that stayed, just us two! This sucks!" the orange Grunt said back and crossed his arms.

Jabjab looked around the hanger and saw 3 Phantoms in dock. Suddenly, this gave the Grunt an idea.

"Hey...have you ever flown a Phantom before?" Jabjab asked.

"Once in simulation, it didn't really go well...wait, why?" Yapflop asked back.

He saw Jabjab looking past him, so he turned around himself to see the Phantom's. The Grunt suddenly knew of Jab jab's plan.

"No...No, the Brutes will try and kill us if we escape with a Phantom!" Yapflop objected to Jabjab's idea.

"Do you still really want to be treated like garbage? We can escape from the Brute's while still have a chance, and hopefully if we find Arbiter, we will be treated much better and we also might get to go home, c'mon, don't you remember the times when the Elites were in charge? They were much better leaders, the Brutes suck!" Jabjab continued.

Yapflop looked back at the Phantom then back at Jabjab. He does a weary sigh.

"Fine, but I get dibs on the Fuel rod gun!" Yapflop said while pointing at the weapons behind them.

"Fine, I will have the Needler!" Jabjab replied.

The Grunts got their weapons and a few plasma Grenades.

Meanwhile, back at the Bridge, Magnaruckus gathered all the high ranked Brutes for a meeting, to discuss the threat of the Arbiter still around.

"My fellow pack brothers...Since the Arbiter is still very much alive, we have full authority to destroy everything that gets in our way. That means killing the native races on this planet. Capture a few to get some info if you can, but resistance met by those races are to be annihilated!" the chieftain roared.

The Brutes all roared proudly, to know that their destiny is to kill the Arbiter and the Sangheili race. The chieftain then whispered to himself something he must do.

"But the Arbiter is mine".

Back at the hanger, Jabjab and Yapflop were able to sneak onto one of the Phantoms.

"Ok, you get on the pilot's seat and I will get on the main plasma gun" Jabjab ordered him.

"You got it!" he said and ran to the cockpit's seat to see it empty.

He jumped into to the seat and activated the engines of the Phantom, which then gave out a noise that most of the Brutes could hear.

"Uh-oh, they're going to hear that!" Jabjab said while activating the front forward turret of the dropship.

Outside, the Brutes confused why the dropship is activating. Then one of them came up with a conclusion.

"Someone is stealing the Phantom!" a minor ranked Brute shouted.

Inside, Yapflop got the handles of the controls and started lifting the Phantom in the air.

"This thing is very hard to control with my Grunty hands!" he shouted.

"Go, go, go! The Brutes have got big guns!" Jabjab shouted as he saw Brutes armed with Brute shots come out and aim at the Phantom.

The large Covenant craft exited out of the Hanger while being shot at by the Brutes. The Grunts flew as fast as they could from the Cruiser. Unfortunately, this has attracted 2 Seraph fighters.

"SERAPHS! TAKE THEM DOWN!" Yapflop shouted.

Jabjab turned the front forward plasma turret and fired at the 2 Seraph fighters.

The Seraph's barrel rolled and evaded the incoming shots while still pursuing the Phantom. They fired back at the Phantom with fast firing plasma guns. The Phantom could not avoid these shots. The Seraphs were obviously much superior when evading.

"AH! THOSE WINDBAG SUCKIN AIR MONKIES!" Yapflop cursed at the Seraphs.

The Seraphs then finally got a critical on the Phantom's engines. The dropship slowly lowered itself down. As all the craft entered atmosphere, the dropship started to feel the gravity and started descending rapidly, while the Seraphs pulled back.

"OH MY GOD! WE'RE GOING DOWN!" Jabjab shouted in terror.

The Phantom was now burning through the atmosphere like the Shadow of Intent did. The Phantom then disappeared through the clouds, burning in the sky.

Meanwhile in Warfang, Arbiter and Cynder were walking through the many areas of the city. The sun was setting behind the mountains as night approached. The Elite and Dragoness were walking back to the Grand Atrium to get some rest.

"So Arbiter..." Cynder looked to her left at Thel.

"Yes Cynder?" He looked back to her.

"Do you have anyone close to you back home?" she asked.

Arbiter turned down at the ground whilst they were still moving. He was probably wondering if Cynder was referring to a female Sangheili that he was very close to. He, in fact, did not.

"I'm afraid I don't, I mean...I was recruited into the Covenant at such a young age, I rarely saw the females of my race, as they were not allowed to be recruited into it. I was not very interested in them because of my young age but now that you mention it...I do get lonely sometimes" Arbiter explained.

Cynder was surprised about this. Thel is such a nice Sangheili in her eyes and he has not got someone to care for after an entire war. In her mind, Thel deserved someone to love and care for.

"Oh...I'm sorry to hear about that...it's just that you seem so kind that I always thought you had someone to look forward to coming home" Cynder complemented Thel.

"Thank you...but it's true, I just hope that one day I will be able to see my home again and also hope that the war has not touched it, for if it has...doom may be upon my race" Thel said darkly.

Suddenly, there was a scream. From Cynder's perspective, it sounded like a Mole in terror.

"Did you hear that?" Cynder quickly asked Thel

"Yes, c'mon, we must hurry to that sound!" he replied back and both he and Cynder followed the trail of the scream.

They ran a good mile to see a whole bunch of Moles with Hunter and Shin gathered around a light. When Thel and Cynder turned a corner find out what's the problem, a whole building, which must have been the library, was on fire, and in front of the fire was the large zealot known only as Darst. He held in his right hand an energy sword and in his left was Arbiter's plasma rifle. The fire was all around the building, and the blazes could be seen coming out of the windows. Cynder stared in horror as the building burnt. Arbiter on the other hand was in a state of rage. He specifically told Darst to not do anything drastic to the populations in the city, or Thel would have full authority to do anything to the Elite.

"That...had too much history of our race...as well as anyone else's!" Cynder was about to burst into tears.

Arbiter saw Shin try to calm Darst down, who looks like he has gone insane.

"Darst! Why? Why did you destroy it you fool!" Shin shouted Darst.

"Get back Shin, or by the Prophets, I will kill you! AND THAT GOES FOR THE REST OF YOU! STAY BACK DAMN IT!" Darst threatened everybody with his weapons.

Shin backed up as the plasma rifle was aimed at him. Some Mole guards held their weapons at the zealot, but they knew if Darst attacks, they will not stand a chance. Arbiter had no choice. He had to deal with Darst before anyone gets hurt.

"Cynder, I will deal with him, you go tell Spyro and the guardians...and have a infirmary standing by as well" Arbiter told her.

"Ok, but please be careful!" she asked him.

"I will, now go!" he ordered her.

Cynder took off instantly. She flew towards the Atrium to get Spyro and the guardians to warn them of the situation. Arbiter walked into the crowds of Moles. He also walked past Hunter, who watched the Elite go closer to Darst. Thel stopped next to Shin.

"You got your Spiker?" he asked Shin.

"Yeah?" Shin replied back pulling out the Brute weapon.

"Give it to me...he has to be stopped one way or another" Arbiter was handed the weapon.

Shin watched closely as he and the crowd watched the Arbiter walk closer to Darst.

Darst turned around to see Arbiter pointing the Spiker at him. This looked very bad.

"Arbiter? What's happening? Why are pointing that ugly thing at me?" Darst asked with a touch of insane in his voice.

"I told you! Do not do anything drastic...AND THIS IS HOW I AM REPAID? We were allowed to stay with the Dragons until we found a way home, but what do you do? DESTROY AN ENTIRE BUILDING FILLED WITH THE DRAGON'S HISTORY? You disobeyed a direct order from your superior, you have broken the code of honour, and NOW...I get to do whatever I want with you, may it be the strip of your rank, banishment from this land or even death!" Arbiter explained to Darst the error of his ways.

"What are you going to do to me Thel? You're going to kill me? Give me to the Brutes?" Darst shouted with a hint of laughter.

"You've gone insane Darst...I have to beat a little sense out of you" Thel still had the spiker pointed at Darst.

Darst walked slowly closer to Thel.

"C'mon Thel, we're in a heap of situations already...our ship is destroyed, the Brutes are trying to kill us...and your friend Rtas died in vain!" Darst suddenly pointed something out that hurt Thel's feelings.

Arbiter was slowly shaking the weapon. He suddenly did not want to hurt Darst. He slowly lowered the weapon, allowing Darst to get much closer to him. Thel did not say a word.

"See Arbiter? We cannot hurt each other like this anymore...we have to work together..." Darst stared down at Thel, who was slowly looking up, unknown to the danger right now. Darst's right hand with the energy sword was going to strike. Arbiter suddenly saw Darst's sword. He was about to evade, but he came too late, and Darst did an upper cut on Thel's chest, slicing through the armour and through the flesh, spilling his blood. The wounds were not deep, but it still cut through enough to make Arbiter fall on his backside. The moles stood back after the strike. Shin and Hunter were horrified by this moment.

"...But we also have to make sure we do not die by Brute hands Arbiter..." Darst said finishing his sentence after the attack.

Arbiter tried to put pressure on his wound, but the blood still came out. He slowly stood back up, still covering it. He knew instantly that Darst had to be stopped before the situation gets worse.

"Darst...forgive me if I have to kill you...your mind is clouded like the Brutes...I have to stop you to protect these innocent beings" Arbiter was sworn to stop Darst and end this senseless, violent fight.

**This was another toughie. and hey, grunts for comedic use. I hope you enjoyed it, review if you'd like to. =)**


	6. The Terrible Darst

As night started descending upon the city and the land around it, Cynder was flying back to the Grand Atrium to warn the guardians about the threat caused by Darst. She flew desperately to the large building as she knows somewhere in her mind, Arbiter was in trouble. Her wing muscles strained as she closed in to the building. She noticed that a window was open and decided to fly through to shorten the distance to get to the guardians. It was unknown to whose room it was, but the black dragoness opened the door and ran through the halls and corners to find the wise Dragons. She came to the same room where Arbiter and Darst first met the guardians. Cynder busted the door open to find the Dragons still there, to her relief. Spyro and Sparx were with them. The door busting open grabbed everyone's attention. Cynder ran up to the group desperately.

"Cynder?" Spyro said with a low voice. He watched Cynder run up to where he was.

She stopped right in front of the guardians, trying to grab her breath.

"Young Dragon, what brings you here in a hurry?" Terrador asked Cynder.

"Its Darst!...He...he's burning down the Library! Arbiter is trying to stop him, he told me to tell you about it!" Cynder was panicking.

"What? Why would he do this? We let him stay in the city and he already destroys one of our most historical structures?" Volteer exclaimed.

"Arbiter is trying to calm him down but, somewhere in my mind, he is in trouble!" Cynder wanted to get back to the library as quickly as possible.

"That building holds almost all our history! We have to move!" Cyril said standing up.

"All right, Cynder, thank you for telling us, take Spyro and Sparx with you back to the Library, we will catch up, now go!" Terrador demanded the young Dragons.

"Spyro, c'mon!" Cynder shouted to the purple Dragon whilst running.

"All right let's go!" Spyro shouted back whilst running to catch up to Cynder.

Sparx hovered in the air and spoke to himself.

"I knew something bad was going to happen tonight...WAIT FOR ME!" Sparx flew towards the young dragons exiting the main meeting room.

Back at the burning Library, Darst had an energy sword at the ready to kill Arbiter. His insanity has driven him to kill his own superior and friend. He dropped the plasma rifle, but still kept the sword in his right hand. Arbiter's wound was still spilling his dark pure purple blood. He dropped the spiker he had. He was completely unarmed against the zealot.

"Arbiter, accept your demise at my hands and not the Brutes...it will be quick and swift" Darst said walking up to Thel, having the urge to kill him.

Thel stood back a few feet away from the large Elite. His blood started to make a trail.

Darst went to strike at him. He ran up to , using the sword, try and cut Arbiter's body in half from the stomach. Thel dropped to the ground to avoid the fatal attack. Darst recovered from his first strike and went to strike Arbiter on the ground. He lifted the sword in the air to make it go through Arbiter's back, but Thel reacted quickly and got back up, whilst Darst accidently pushed the sword into the ground. Thel ran around behind Darst to grab the spiker. Whilst Darst was still trying to pull the sword out of the ground, Thel used the spiker's sharp blade like weapons at the front of the barrel to stab Darst's back. The zealot roared in pain. The crowds around them stood back in fear. Shin and Hunter were the closest ones to the fight.

"I...I cannot watch this!" Shin covered his face, as he does not want to see the end result of this fight.

"Please, all of you, leave this area, the guardians will come to deal with the situation, please leave before anyone else gets hurt!" Hunter shouted to the crowds.

The Moles all started running in panic, not from Hunter's warning, but from what was behind him. Arbiter was thrown in the air and was about to collide with Hunter. The Cheetah turned around and saw the incoming Sangheili collide into him. Darst was responsible for throwing Thel into Hunter. He was unable to lift the sword out of the ground thanks the Spiker in his back. Darst reached behind him to grab the spiker. He pulled it out of whilst roaring pain. His back poured out the salty taste of Sangheili blood. Darst held the spiker in his right hand and walked up to Arbiter, who was trying to get up. When Thel stood up, he felt his right arm broken from the fall. Hunter got up with a few bruises from the collision. Thel held his right arm with the other. He suddenly stared at Darst with the spiker pointed at him from a few metres away.

"Arbiter...I will see you on the other side" Darst gave a farewell to Thel.

Cynder and Spyro closed in on the fight. They hovered just few metres away, but high enough to not be seen. Cynder was horrified to see that Arbiter was injured and Darst prepared to kill him on the spot. She had to save him. She then thought of something extremely drastic

"Spyro...please forgive for what I'm about to do" she told him.

"What? What are you talking about?" the purple dragon was confused.

Cynder looked at the ground. Arbiter told her about the weapons that were used in the war he fought. The black Dragoness, without warning, descended to the ground. Spyro got surprised about this move made by Cynder.

"No...What are you doing?" Spyro shouted as he watched Cynder close in on the fight.

Sparx flew up next to Spyro and he already knew what Cynder was doing, so he covered his eyes.

"I can't watch this" he whispered.

Darst prepared to pull the trigger. Thel closed his eyes, waiting for his inevitable death. Cynder suddenly flew just above low ground, capturing the Moles attention. As she closed in, Hunter and Shin saw her coming. Darst pulled the trigger of the spiker. 5 spikes were fired. They were going straight for Thel. In a flash though, something black passed in front of the two Elites. Arbiter opened his eyes to see that he was unharmed by the spikes but he turned to his right. Cynder took the spikes for him. She crashed onto the ground and was dragged along, with dust being kicked up, until she came to a stop. When she did, the spikes landed in her chest and went along down near her left hind leg. Her blood has been spilt on the ground as it seeped out of the wounds. Her eyes were closed as she also had a hard time breathing. Cynder has been shot by a Brute weapon. Darst looked to his left and saw her lying perfectly still. He shot her accidently, those spikes were not for her. The zealot dropped the spiker and onto his knees. In the air, Spyro saw his closest friend get shot by the brutal weapon. Tears welled up in his eyes as there was hardly any movement from Cynder. Sparx uncovered his face, but covered it again after seeing the sight of Cynder's body lying on the ground with her blood around her body.

"Ah jeez!" Sparx said to himself.

Spyro descended as fast as he could to get to Cynder. He landed next to her and started to roll her body of to where the wounds are. As he did, Cynder's face was in front of the purple Dragon. Her mouth was closed and she was hardly breathing. A spike landed in her chest, now with a chance it could have hit her heart. Another landed in her left arm. A third one landed in her belly. The fourth one was located at her landed on another part of her belly and the final one landed in her left hind leg. Her warm red blood poured on the ground and, whilst he was holding her in his arms. Arbiter's lower mandibles dropped. He felt jolt of sorrow overcome him. Cynder saved his life yet again. This time, Darst could've taken her life. Thel clenched his left fist in anger. Darst turned to look at Arbiter. Thel punched the zealot straight in the face with his other arm, knocking the large Elite on the ground.

"Darst! You have really crossed the line now! You...you might have just killed her! You killed the one who saved our lives by leading us away from the Shadow! I should just kill you right now!" Arbiter shouted while holding Darst's head held high.

Shin walked over to Thel and Darst. The Arbiter grabbed the spiker and aimed straight at Darst's right eye. Suddenly, a faint voice was heard from where Spyro was holding Cynder. Thel turned to see that Cynder was still alive. the black Dragoness, although her voice was faint, tried to speak to Spyro. His tears dropped from his face to her body.

"It's ok Spyro...I'm...I'm alright" Cynder assured the purple Dragon, but he could not stop the tears coming from his eyes.

" I thought I...I lost you...don't you ever do anything like that again" Spyro told her. He could not stand losing Cynder from his life.

Spyro buried his head under Cynder's head. Although she was in pain, she was enjoying the contact she was receiving. Her breathing started to become a bit better, but the blood still seeped out. Her wings laid still on the ground, while her upper body was held.

"Shin, keep your eye on Darst, take this, if he tries anything drastic, kill him! He has already crossed the line!" Thel ordered Shin, handing him the spiker.

Arbiter started to walk over to the young Dragons. At the same time, Terrador and Volteer landed in front of the burning Library, whilst Cyril used an ice breath to freeze the flames. Meanwhile, Spyro lifted his head and stared into Cynder's emerald eyes.

"Cynder...I have to tell you now" Spyro said whilst trying to wipe away the tears of sorrow.

"Tell me what?" Cynder asked in faint voice.

The purple Dragon breathed in to speak his sentence. His heart was beating rapidly, but since Cynder was in the state she is horribly in, he spoke his sentence without stutter.

"I love you Cynder...I heard you at the centre of the Earth...I thought it was just my imagination, but I was wrong...It was you...I love you so much" Spyro just told Cynder his most deepest feelings for her.

Her eyes widened in surprise. She never thought those words could come out of his mouth, but they did. She felt a whole bunch of emotions come together. She even did not care about the wounds she has sustained, although they were still stinging.

"Spyro...I love you too...more than anything in the world" Cynder told him, without the faint in her voice.

The young Dragons nuzzled each other's cheeks. Cynder's wounds prevented them from getting any closer to each other. Arbiter came to the scene, to see the both of them in love. Thel gave a small grin as the young Dragons did not even notice him.

"Ahem...I hope I'm not interrupting anything important" Thel said with a hint of sarcasm.

The couple lifted up their heads to see the Arbiter right in front of them kneeling down next to Cynder. They had a bit of blushing on their cheeks from embarrassment, but not as much as they had before.

"Cynder...I can't thank you enough for saving my life once again...I am in your debt...I still hope one day to repay you for what you have done for me" Thel promised exactly that, whilst still holding his broken arm.

The black Dragoness could only smile at the Arbiter. She enjoys getting gratitude from another being other than her own race, especially Thel. Suddenly, her wounds got to her, and she moaned in pain from the spikes.

"Cynder! I have to take you to the infirmary, can you walk?" Spyro asked her.

"I...don't know" she said trying to get up. She could not. The spikes prevented her from moving.

"You will have to get these things out of me" she asked both Spyro and Thel.

Thel and Spyro looked at each other that instant.

"Uh...ok...Spyro, use something that she can bite while I try to pull these spikes out" Arbiter told Spyro what he has to do.

"Ok...Cynder, I'm going to let you bite down on my tail while Arbiter pulls the spikes out, ok?" Spyro telling Cynder what must be done.

"Ok, I promise I won't rip it off...much" she said back with a grin on her face.

Spyro gulped a little. Cynder's teeth were very sharp so he hoped she won't bite down very hard. Spyro placed his tail between her jaws. He held it there so if Cynder is about to scream in pain, she has something to bite down. Arbiter grabbed the spike that is in her chest.

"Ready?" Thel asked both Dragons.

They both nodded. Arbiter started pulling the spike out of her chest with his left hand. He was strong enough to pull it out with one hand. The spike was not big in width or length so it should be easy to pull out, but Cynder biting down decided that. Spyro could feel the pain go to his head. Cynder bit down hard, even releasing a little bit of blood, but this was just a fraction of what Cynder felt. Arbiter pulled out the first one with ease, though, Cynder's blood started pouring out. He grabbed a second spike in her left arm. This was also easy, but not for Spyro's tail. Thel pulled and instantly got the spike out and put it next to the first one. More blood came out, and this started to become a messy job. Thel then went for the one in the centre of her soft belly. This is a tricky one since the spike has stabbed where some organs could be, and Cynder fidgeted for this one. Thel pulled while Spyro felt more pain in his tail. The third spike finally came out. Thel then went for the one in Cynder's left hind leg. This one went straight through the muscle.

Meanwhile, Darst was on his knees. He confronted the guardians up close, with Shin still aiming the spiker at him. Darst has been shamed, he has violated the honour code of the Sangheili and has even able to almost kill the creature that has lead him to safety, as well as trying to kill a superior ranked Elite and also burnt down a building filled with history of a race that has been consumed by war. Normally on Sangheilios, a punishment for this kind is always resulted in death, but this is not Sangheilios, so punishment could be different.

"Darst Kino! You have destroyed one of our most historical buildings with most of our history now wiped out, you have threatened Warfang's citizens, you even tried to kill a young female of our race, while we are all on the verge of extinction! Darst, you don't want to know how much I want you out of this city" Cyril shouted at the zealot.

Darst only listened to the guardian with shame upon his shoulders. He did not deserve to live in this universe anymore.

"So then...why don't kill me right here, right now? Or why don't you banish me out of the city? Or even better, give me to the Brutes?" Darst wanted all of this, he did not even stutter.

"If I could I-" Cyril was interrupted by Volteer.

"Now, now Cyril, Shin and Hunter both told me he was driven by insanity, it's probably not his fault, after all, who wouldn't after going through a war of such magnitude!" Volteer did not want the Elite to suffer, it was obvious that Darst was driven by the insanity inside his head.

"But...I still attacked everybody, I deserve to suffer for my consequences!" the zealot pleaded for death. Shin has never seen this side of Darst before. He lowered the spiker.

"Shin, what are you doing? Why don't you kill me now?" the crimson elite begged for his demise.

"Darst...you may have done awful things tonight, but we Elites need to stay together! We have come this far during our campaign with the covenant to this. We can, and will, find a way to get home! Your life is not supposed to end here!" Shin told the shamed Darst with honour and pride.

Darst has never heard Shin like this. In fact, the blue armoured Elite was right. The Brutes are still looming around the planet and there is payback to be done. Darst stood up before the wise Dragons, now hoping they would let him live and still live in the city.

"Guardians...I...I beg you for forgiveness...My eyes were blinded by insanity and dishonour...I beg of you...I promise to help rebuild this building while there is still something left. I am...sorry" Darst bowed his head down.

Volteer and Cyril both looked at Terrador. The green Dragon gave a sigh.

"I guess...we can forgive you for this disaster. But punishment is still in order. You are to help fix the damage you have done to the Library with the Moles that will rebuild it. If you want forgiveness from Cynder and Arbiter for your attacks against them, you will have to speak with them personally" Terrador gave the zealot's punishment.

"Yes Dragons...thank you" Darst brought his head back up. Shin gave a smiling kind of expression.

Arbiter and Spyro were still helping Cynder. They were able to get the fourth spike out of her hind leg. The final spike was in her belly also, but it's not quite far from Cynder's "sensitive area". Arbiter gulped and covered his eyes. This was a very awkward moment for both him and Spyro. Cynder did not care as she just wanted the spike out of her.

"Cynder just stay calm, this is the last one...Oh, I'm not going to like it one bit" Thel told her. She only sighed in response.

Arbiter grabbed hold of the spike and pulled as hard as he could, as Cynder continued to bite down on Spyro's tail, which by now, her teeth sank into it. At last, to Thel for what seemed hours but just a few seconds, the spike came out and Cynder's blood poured out. Thel backed up and held his right arm. Cynder slowly turned her body onto the ground. Her underbelly and left legs kept on bleeding. Spyro was relieved to not have Cynder bit him anymore, but now his tail was bleeding, but he didn't mind it. His wing covered the black Dragoness as he helped her move.

"Thel, follow me to the infirmary if your hurt, I have to get Cynder there" Spyro asked the Elite.

Thel nodded and followed close behind the Dragons as they walked to their destination, also releasing a trail of blood behind them. Darst watched them go. He knew he had to apologise Thel and Cynder for attacking them. He sighed in shame.

"Well? C'mon, I'll come with you on this one" Shin demanded Darst to follow them.

The crimson Elite nodded and followed close behind Shin to see where they go.

Meanwhile, a Phantom burnt through the atmosphere. The Grunts aboard were screaming their little heads off as the dropship descended through the night sky with the fire on the front.

"IM TOO YOUNG TO DIE!" Yapflop screamed.

"I HAVE SO MUCH TO LIVE FOR THOUGH! NOOOOO!" Jabjab also screamed.

**I hope you enjoyed this one, The 2 Grunts have been falling out the sky for a while now, Darst has ridded of his insanity, Spyro and Cynder have told each other their deepest feelings and the Brutes are still preparing to attack. Review if you would like to and any critical help would be nice. Annihilator out =) **


	7. Two lives forever intertwined

The night still darkens the land. The moons sit up brightly in the sky, giving a tiny bit of light for the Earth below. As it all seems to be silent, a bright burning object slices through the atmosphere. The Phantom that escaped the Cruiser was about to plummet into the Earth. The figures onboard plead for their saviour.

"OH GOD! HELP US!" Jabjab screamed at the top of his Grunty lungs as he held on to the front forward turret controls. Yapflop was also clinging onto the dropship controls.

"PLEASE STOP THIS! AAAAHHHH!" the little orange Unggoy begged for help.

The dropship increased speed as it burned up. On the meadow's however, the quiet, silent sound of the night flows through the valley as a lone group of cheetahs, 5 of them at the very least, patrol the area that surrounds their village. They were armed with swords and bows with a good number of arrows. It gets very cold at this time of night.

"Chief Prowlus, how much longer? We have been out here for a few decent hours and we still have yet to sleep!" a yellow furred cheetah asked his leader at the front of the party. The leader's fur was very close to red and his cloak were a dark kind of red to go with him.

"Until the sun rises, which should not be far, everyone stays until that time comes, now keep moving, the war may be over but that doesn't mean those Grublins are wiped out!" the cheetah leader was pushing his troops to exhaustion. They were patrolling to keep an eye out for anything not friendly towards the cheetah kind. One of them wearing a green kind of cloak looked up into the night sky. He was also red furred, but not quite like Prowlus. His eyes though were pink, surrounding his black pupils. He spotted a light crossing the sky. He gave a smile towards this object.

"Meadow, are you deaf? I told you to keep moving!" Prowlus bossed Meadow around.

"Sorry, I was looking at the light crossing the sky" Meadow pointed at the object that looks similar to a shooting star. Prowlus looked up as well. Something seemed to worry the leader about the object.

"Strange, shooting stars aren't supposed to be that bright...unless it was quite close" Prowlus knew something wasn't right about the object in the sky.

All cheetahs looked up at the sky. This shooting star was burning very bright. It was close...almost to close. Suddenly, all their eyes widened as the object was actually in the planet's atmosphere, not in the depth of space. That object was none other than the Phantom. It was going to crash where the cheetahs are.

"Everybody! Spread out! It's going to plummet into the ground!" Prowlus shouted to al the cheetahs in the vicinity of the area. They all scattered out to avoid the imminent danger. The Phantom was losing its colour as the fire burned the armour. As it crashed into the ground, the dropship made a searing metal noise that cannot be blocked out. The fires that were burning at the front were extinguished as the dirt and soil was kicked up in the air. The dropship came to a stop at last and in the nick of time as it stopped just before the cheetah village, A little too close for comfort. Inside, the Grunts fates from the crash were revealed as Jabjab climbed out of the turret seat.

"Ung...I always hated Phantoms...Yapflop? Yapflop, where are you?" Jabjab called out to his friend.

"I'm over here" Yapflop heard Jabjab's call. The little orange armoured Grunt was on his head, with all his weight bearing down on it.

Jabjab came over and rolled him back on his feet. Yapflop rubbed his head to make it feel better. Jabjab went to grab his needler, which was stuck in the turret controls.

"Damn it, a place where I obviously have to pull it out! ok..." Jabjab walked over to the controls and tried his best to pull the needler.

"C'mon (grunts) I need you to protect me (grunts again) PIECE OF CRAP!" Jabjab insulted the needler, which at the same time, came out of the controls and sent the green armoured Grunt flying towards Yapflop.

"Oh, here's my Fuel rod-" Jabjab collided into Yapflop, interrupting his sentence.

Both of them moaned as Jabjab try to recover from his collision.

"Sorry" Jabjab apologised to Yapflop in a kindly matter.

"Ung...forget about it, c'mon, let's get out this death-trap" Jabjab agreed to Yapflop's suggestion.

They both walked out of the, now out of commission, lift of the Phantom. As they looked up, Prowlus and his cheetahs surrounded the two Grunts, all pointing swords at them. The Grunts gulped in fear and dropped their weapons in the process, also raising their arms into the air.

"What...are you things?" Prowlus, instantly, was filled with questions that now buzzed around his head.

A moment of silence was broken by the sound of Yapflop's voice.

"Well this sucks".

Elsewhere on Earth, as it's supposedly called, the city of Warfang recovers from ordeal. The ice that Cyril formed has extinguished the flames on the Library, and now, all is left is a fire scarred structure of blackness. The blood that was spilt on the street, both Elite and Dragon blood, was soon to be cleaned up by Moles that were sent from the infirmary to the scene. Whilst now mentioning the infirmary, it's a tent made with white material. The real building that housed a lot more patients was destroyed during the war. The infirmary was usually empty, since almost everyone has recovered from the destructive conflict, and only now it has recently received patients. Inside, Cynder laid on her backside on a specially made bed just for the sick and wounded. Her head was on its side, with her eyes closed. Although the spikes were out, her blood was still seeping out. She almost sacrificed herself to save Arbiter from Darst's insanity. She slept peacefully, even with her current state. For now, Only tads of blood seeped out, a lot less than when Thel pulled out the spikes, with Spyro's help of course. A Mole came in with some red crystals. He was going to treat her with these objects of beauty.

Elsewhere in the tent, two Moles were treating Thel's wounds. With Thel, they didn't use red crystals, so instead, they had to do the more common procedure that Dragons do not need. One Mole worked on fixing Thel's arm by surgically placing it back together, as it was only dislocated, not a whole broken bone. His shoulder basically popped out from the rest of the skeleton. The Mole had to cut his way into Thel's shoulder, while he was awake, to reconnect it to the rest of the bones. The other injury was an energy sword uppercut attack to the chest and up. Only bandages was needed for this injury, as Elites are trained to use swords and their skin is used to repairing itself from those kind of attacks. Arbiter felt extreme pain in his shoulder when the Mole was cutting through using only a small knife and scissors. The other Mole had to wrap bandages around Thel's chest.

"Agh! By the gods! Please be careful what you do!" the Elite tried hard as possible to not yell at the Mole, for doing severe pain to him.

"I'm sorry sir, but I should be close to the bone soon...I hope you Elites heal fast" the Mole apologised to the Arbiter for making him go through this procedure, but it was the only choice Thel had.

"Well, lucky for me, we do" Thel laid his head back with a huge sigh.

The Mole cut through Thel's skin a little deeper, with his paws and claws catching the blood of the Sangheili. Although it's not the type of blood the Mole was used to, he continued his was to the bone. The other Mole had just finished his bandage wrapping task around Thel's chest. It covered his armour as well as the wound. Finally, the Mole operating his elbow finally reached the bone. It was covered in Sangheili blood, but it was still strong white bone.

"Ok Arbiter, I need your help with this; take hold of your arm and I'll give you the directions to place it back into its correct position, I shall also put pressure on the area so the blood does not make you pass out during the procedure" the Mole asked Thel for this critical task.

Arbiter nodded slowly and got his left hand to take place under his arm. He prepared to follow the Moles instructions.

"Ok, when you're ready uh...may I ask for your name?" Thel asked the Mole in the nicest manner.

"You may call me Doctor Clin" The Mole revealing his name whilst putting pressure on Arbiter's arm.

"Ok...Clin, when you're ready" Thel took hold his arm tightly.

"Alrighty...a little to the left and push only slightly" Clin giving Thel his task. As expected from the Mole, Arbiter followed his directions.

"Now, to the right a tiny bit" Clin was watching the bone come closer to the its original position. Thel did this task also, but the pain would always go to his head.

"Now for the final part. You have to, as hard as you can, push your elbow back into position. This will hurt a lot so prepare for the worst" Clin gave his final instruction whilst he jumped off to grab bandages from the other Mole.

Thel slowly breathed in and out for this final act of surgery. Without warning, Thel proceeded to push his entire arm back into position. This was, indeed, a very painful act. Thel pushed as hard as he could, whilst feeling the searing pain, to reconnect his entire arm. Clin was there waiting for Thel to place his arm back into position so he could sow the skin back up. At last, Arbiter felt the bone reconnect to the rest of his skeleton. He could move his arm a little better. Clin climbed up his arm to sow it back up and bandage it, as the sowing will need support for the wound to fully heal.

Back in Cynder's quarter's, the Mole successfully used the red crystals to heal the Dragoness's wounds. Her blood holes that used to be there were now fully healed, only leaving small marks of where they used to exist. She was still asleep, not from the wounds, but from exhaustion. The Mole left without making a single sound, to let her sleep in peace. Though as the Mole left the entrance of her room, Spyro was able to access it without being seen. It was to be noticed that his tail was bandaged from Cynder biting down on it, but this did not distract him from seeing his black beauty. His slipped in and saw Cynder turning her body left. She was now sleeping on her left side. Spyro walked up to her, with his heart racing. He stopped right in front of her, he lowered his closer to Cynder's face. He closed his eyes and kissed her forehead. He has been waiting all night for that moment. He loved Cynder so much, after all they've been through, it was understandable why. Her warm breath flowed onto Spyro's face, feeling a warm sensation.

"I promise never to leave your side again. I will protect you for as long as I live. I love you" Spyro cared for Cynder so much. Spyro's words were not blocked out as though it may seem. She heard him. One of her eyes were slightly just open, but Spyro didn't notice.

Spyro decided to lay down next to her bed to give her company and he relaxed there, even falling into deep sleep. In Arbiter's quarter's, the Elite exited out with Doctor Clin. His chest and elbow have been bandaged, and could even give it some movement, but not a lot.

"Thank you doctor, for your help. Not what I'm used to but I'll get over it" Arbiter gave his appreciation to the Mole.

"It was a pleasure...well not really. Dirty work it may be, but I enjoy helping others in troubled times...even if they are from another world" Clin happily and politely said to Thel. The Arbiter only replied in with a grinned kind of expression as Clin walked back into the room.

Arbiter turned around to see Darst and Shin standing by the entrance. Thel's grinned expression was lost in a heartbeat and turned to a more firm but also disappointed facial expression. Darst could only look at Arbiter with shame. Shin bumped Darst's back with his right shoulder, telling him to walk up to Thel. The massive Elite sighed, and slowly walked up to his superior, stopping right in front of him.

"Arbiter...Thel...please forgive me. I was clouded by my insanity. I should have not attacked anyone, especially you. I can only beg for your eternal forgiveness. I promise to not destroy anymore buildings or attack any of the population" Darst pleaded.

This gave time for Arbiter to think. Darst did threaten to attack the Moles, he tried to kill the Arbiter, and almost killed Cynder with a Brute weapon. Normally, a more strict officer would execute an Elite right on the spot. But Arbiter cannot go on to killing Darst, after all they have been through. He did not kill any of the Moles and Cynder did survive those fatal attacks. Thel then made his judgement for the zealot.

"Darst...(sigh) I guess...you deserve another chance. Usually, I'd kill someone for this kind of punishment, but seeing that we're the soul survivors of the Shadow, I can't bring myself do that. Instead, I will allow the guardians make you rebuild that Library with the Moles. I overheard that judgement between you and them" Thel appointed the zealot.

Darst sighed in relief. Even though he will have to work with the Moles, he is grateful for Thel's decision of not executing him.

"Thank you Arbiter. I need find Cynder, I have to apologise to her...It's my fault she's hurt and I must see to her that my friendship towards the dragoness does not go down sink" Darst needed to see the black Dragoness urgently.

Arbiter gave the zealot a smile for Darst's smart decision to see Cynder. He made the zealot and Shin follow him to Cynder's room. They only had to go down a small hall to find her quarters. Arbiter looked through each room to find her. He stopped to see Cynder on a bed with Spyro laying down on the floor next to her. As they entered, Cynder slowly opened her eyes to see Darst in front of her. She slowly raised her head and yawned, then shifted her body to sit up. She stared into the zealot's eyes, his dark purple looking eyes. Darst then spoke of his apology.

"Cynder...I'm sorry that I attacked you. I promised your guardians to help rebuild the Library. You are a brave young Dragon to take that course of action. Rarely I see times like those when one saves another's life, even if they are of the different species. I also thank you for saving Thel's life from my attack" Darst spoke with a clear, responsible attitude towards Cynder. In response, she gave a smile.

"It's not your fault, I was the one that chose to do that act. I accept your apology if that's what you expected. I did feel good after saving Thel's life, at least something I can redeem from my past" Cynder spoke with an open mind towards Darst. She looked past him to see Arbiter and Shin standing behind him.

"Besides, I thought had to save Thel because he looked a little tired and weak" she gave a grin towards Arbiter after saying that.

"Hey, I've had an exhausting week, I don't need to be patronised" he replied to Cynder's sentence, feeling a little offended. Cynder gave a little giggle towards him.

Spyro was awaken by the conversation. He looked up to see Darst standing high above him. He jolted back up and moved away a couple of feet.

"Oh sorry Spyro, I didn't see you there" Darst apologised to the purple Dragon.

"Probably because your too tall for him Mr itchy trigger finger" a voice spoke, insulting Darst at the same time. They all looked around until, behind them, Sparx flew through the room. This annoyed Spyro and Cynder the most.

Sparx flew around Darst until they came face to face.

"What did you say about me you glowing bug?" Darst questionably insulting Sparx.

"You heard me, you attacked Arbiter and almost killed the female of fright in the process, I'm surprised your head has not been chopped off for that" Sparx was only tipping Darst to anger.

"Grr, your one of the reasons why I tried to kill Thel and almost ended up killing Cynder!" Darst growled whilst exposing the rows of teeth on his mandibles. Sparx backed away from the sight.

"Keep those away from me two jaws!" he demanded.

"Sparx, maybe it's best if you go back to the Atrium and wait for us there" Spyro politely but firmly asked Sparx, after seeing the anger in Darst's eyes. Sparx instantly turned to the purple dragon with a shocked expression.

"But, I came to see if you were ok" Sparx explained his presence here.

"I'm fine, Cynder's fine, Arbiter's fine. There, now wait for me at my room please" Spyro demanded from his brother.

Sparx didn't argue and turned to exit the infirmary through a window. He flew to the Grand Atrium saddened by what Spyro asked him to do. After all, he only wanted to see if everyone was ok. In the tent, Spyro gave a long sigh after making Sparx go.

"Darst, Shin, I think we all deserve a rest, I cannot stand to stay awake any longer" Thel letting his Elites know it's time to leave for the Atrium themselves.

"Which reminds me, Darst, did you get the weapons from that you dropped during the fight?" Thel wanting to know what happened to the plasma rifle, energy sword and spiker.

"I got the spiker and sword, Shin here has the plasma rifle" Darst pointed where they were.

"Alright, we'll take those back to the armoury, then it's off to the rooms for some sleep, I think I also speak for everyone else that we're begging for rest?" Arbiter crossed his arms with everyone all in agreement.

"Ok then. Cynder, Spyro, I bid you goodnight until morning" Arbiter bided farewell to the young Dragons.

Darst and Shin were the first ones to exit Cynder's quarters. Arbiter went to exit as well but turned his towards Cynder.

"Young Dragons...I thank you for everything you have done for me and my Elites" he gave the young Dragons his gratitude before leaving.

"It's been our pleasure Arbiter" Cynder replied to the Elite in the most politest of manners.

Thel gave a smile and walked out. Cynder suddenly jumped of the bed and land next to Spyro. He turned and stared right into her emerald gaze.

"Spyro...I heard what you said about me before you decided to doze off into a little nap next to me...do you really mean it?" Cynder reminded the purple Dragon of what he said to her while she was supposedly asleep. Spyro was about to object and lie about it, but he shook that off immediately. Instead, a more truthful answer escaped his lips.

"Yes Cynder...I did mean it" his heart was pounding, but he wasn't the only one.

Cynder gave him a loving glance and placed her head under his.

"Thank you Spyro...thank you so much" she was so grateful for what he said to her earlier.

"That's ok...It's my pleasure anyway" he replied oh so nicely.

A thought came to the black Dragoness. Would he let her?

"Spyro...If you would allow me...can I sleep with you tonight?" she asked him

"In my room? You do know that Sparx will be there right?" Spyro cautioned her about the Dragonfly.

"Eh, I think I can survive a night with him" she smiled.

Spyro could smile back in reply.

"Alright. I guess you can sleep with me tonight" he gave her access to sleep with him this night.

"Aw, thank you again...c'mon then" Cynder asked Spyro to follow her to the Grand Atrium.

They both took off from the infirmary and above the city. Arbiter and the Elites were already approaching the entrance of the large structure when the young Dragons got there.

Meanwhile, above the planet, the Cruiser still lays idle. The Brutes aboard were preparing to launch an attack force of epic proportions. From arming Phantoms and Banshees to preparing their weapons and land vehicles and even their only Scarab walker. Chieftain Magnaruckus watches this forces arm themselves.

"First Arbiter survives, then a pack brother dies and now, our only two Grunts have gone rouge...they were useless anyway. Arbiter, wherever you are, prepare to meet your demise" Magnaruckus promised Thel's death.

**Another done. I hope you enjoyed, review if you like and thanks for the advice. =) A 78 out.**


	8. Thel's nightmare

The world was dark. Arbiter was in the middle of absolute nowhere; no civilization could be seen for miles, no trees, water, mountains, meadows…everywhere he looked was evil and mysterious. Black mists surrounded his every turn, he had no idea what was going on, what was happening.

"Where…where am I? What is this place?" He took a few steps back in spine tingling horror, "This isn't Warfang…it's not Sangehilios…I never seen anything like this…" he was all alone, he felt completely vulnerable. Thel checked around his body to find no weapons at his thighs or back.

"IS ANYBODY HERE? DARST! SHIN!...CYNDER! Where in the galaxy are they?" he slowly moved a few steps forward, trying find anything that would give him a sign of relief. Only more darkness could be seen.

The place was cold and horrifying…nobody, not even an elite, would be able to come back sane from seeing all this. Thel's hearts pounded each and every second, uncertain what his fate here was.

Why is he here? How did he get here? The last thing he saw was the city of Warfang, now its all black, with tears of dark purple mist, clouds and fog. Lightning spread across the sky and below. He just noticed that there wasn't any ground. It was like he was hovering or floating, but still feeling a solid floor under his feet.

"This…this isn't even the Dragon's Earth…where am I?" he's desires to know what this place was right now. Suddenly, a deathly, loud voice was heard behind him. It went through Thel's veins with terror, frozen still was his reaction and his pupil slits went extremely thin.

"Thel…Thel, it is all your fault…" the voice, as eerily creepy as it sounded, it's too familiar to Thel. He turned around and became shocked of what he saw.

Black misty figures rose from the invisible floor, hundreds of them, thousands of them. They morphed into the shape of elites, taking on their armour configuration of many ranks. They marched at a snail's pace, but were enough to put fear into each single cell of Thel's body. It was clear to him what they were exactly. This is what scared him the most; they were the dead crew of the Shadow of Intent. And to top off his worst nightmare…Rtas Vadum was front and centre of them all.

"No…you…you all died at the crash…I saw dead bodies everywhere at the crash, HOW ARE YOU ALL EVEN ALIVE?" Arbiter couldn't believe what was in front of his eyes. The dead crew, HIS dead crew, and the crew he promised to return home after a vicious war with a virulent parasite and a savage race of murderers.

He broke that promise…was this his punishment? To see their dead eyes staring at him? Rtas stepped towards the stunned Thel Vadam, who was stunned in position, at a loss for words. His breathing became erratic as his dead friend stood right in front of him.

"We aren't alive Thel…you're right, we are dead. The bodies you saw at the crash were all of us, here, standing right before your eyes" Rtas's voice was not the same, but the faint presence of him was there. That's what was scaring Thel the most.

"Then how are you here? WHAT IS THIS PLACE!" Thel demanded an answer, but he just couldn't stand what was going on at the same time. Rtas put a smirk on his face, a smirk that was all too unpleasant.

"You'll never know Vadam…we're here because of you. If you didn't take command of her, the Shadow of Intent as well as the crew would've made it back home. But you just had to take on the responsibility didn't you? You thought that because you were a hero to our people, you should be able to lead us back home? You're no hero! You're no leader! You couldn't even take up the fact that YOU were Shipmaster, not even accepting to be called that! It's all your fault that you and the rest of the survivors are now stranded on a planet that you haven't got any knowledge about, let alone the creatures you call allies! Friends? THEY'RE A PRIMITIVE RACE THEL! WHAT ARE YOU THINKING?" Rtas shouted right at his face, making Thel feel all the weight of guilt lay heavily upon his shoulders. His feelings were obliterated.

"THEY ARE OUR ALLIES! They are, especially Cynder, my friends. They have hearts of pure innocence and freedom, but they too are just as powerful as we are. Physically, no…but the dragoness and the rest of her race have powers that are beyond anything we've seen before. As much as you were my closest comrade…I WON'T LET YOU TALK DOWN TO THEM LIKE THAT!" Thel's mandibles curved into a fierce position, knowing that this wasn't the Rtas he fought alongside with.

"AND IT WASN'T MY FAULT THAT THAT THE SHADOW WAS ATTACKED! The Brutes somehow knew we were on a trajectory course to our homeworld…I never thought that we would get ambushed with 99% of the crew dead…" He dropped to his knees in total remorse. Thel did not know if he was to blame for the tragic event, it would help if he knew how the Brutes were able to predict the Shadow's path, but there was no clear answer.

"You were responsible for our way home, and so you are responsible for the destruction of the Shadow and the deaths of her crew. You've should've died along with us Thel, you're the guilty one here. At least your punishment will be suffering from the memories of all the dead bodies you saw…" Rtas spun around and left Thel to wallow in misery, going back to the legion of Sangheili. Vadam, letting loose a tear from his right eye, looked back up to the leaving Rtas and started to yell at the top of his lungs.

"YOU'RE NOT RTAS! THE REAL RTAS WOULD RESPECT ME FOR ALL THAT I'VE BEEN ABLE TO DO, HE WOULDN'T BLAME ME FOR THIS INCIDENT, AND HE WOULDN'T IN ANY WAY DISRESPECT OUR NEWFOUND ALLIES! YOU'RE A FAKE, A PHONEY, AND A GREAT BIG LIAR! As for the rest of you? YOU'RE NOT THE CREW OF THE SHADOW OF INTENT!" Thel wasn't going to bet his life that these were the actual ghosts of the Intent crew, implying that they were just a figment of his imagination.

The image of Rtas turned his neck around slowly, unveiling a newer, more darker voice than he previously had, "Then you are responsible for everything then…The ship, the crew, the survivors, the dragons…and the city" After that sentence, he and the rest of the ghosts slowly melted into the black floor, melding with darkness that surrounded Thel.

Arbiter was grief stricken to oblivion. He almost bounded onto the floor, using his arms to keep hold of himself as he was in a crawling position. What did those ghosts want with him exactly, why did they have to mentally torture him like this. It's as he thought before, this place was going to make him go insane.

Suddenly, he felt a burning presence behind him as the sounds of fire was being created. He slowly but gradually stood to look behind his back. In front of him was the city of Warfang burning in front him, seeing a Brute Battlecruiser glassing all of the Dragon's history away with the power of technology. Banshees, Seraphs and Phantoms flew overhead, taking part of the destruction to eradicate everyone inside the walls. Was this a foretelling of the future?

"No! By the Rings! There wasn't any warning!" he was almost shocked and mentally distraught. He heard the clash of energy swords and gunfire nearby. He jerked his head to the left and saw Brutes overrunning Darst and Shin.

"LEAVE THEM ALONE! FIGHT ME YOU MONSTERS! LEAVE THEM BE! I'M THE ONE YOU WANT!" Even if his voice was loud and ear breaking, Jiralhanae warriors passed right by him to attack the weakening elites. He tried to grab one but his body phased through the Brutes.

Shin was shot multiple times in the legs by a Spiker, dropping his sword and plasma rifle as he fell to floor. Kino started to run away as the savages went to surround Tarscar and rip him apart with their bare hands. Thel smacked his fists into the floor, enraged with boiling blood, but he couldn't do anything to them, for when touches them, his hands just go right through the Jiralhanae, not grabbing their attention as well as unable to stop them.

Darst kept running with a Carbine in his hands as his brother in arms died. Thel, although he knew it was futile, called over to the zealot, but nothing was able to be done when a Scarab walked right over Thel heading straight for the elite.

"Darst!...the Scarab…" Vadam couldn't shout anymore. He was tired and breathless. He could only watch as the machine fired its beam and send the zealot into total annihilation.

"Must I suffer watching everyone I know die before my eye…I can't take it anymore" he lost all hope of ever getting out of this nightmare. His hearts were crushed in distinct depression. His eyes let loose a number of watery fluids. He slowly opened them and turned to his right and saw Cynder standing all by herself. Vadam crawled to her, desperately trying to reach the dragoness before she suffers the same fate.

"Cynder, leave! Get out of this place!" His voice was still a wreck. Cynder just stared at him like she did when they both first met each other at the Shadow's crash.

All of a moment too soon, the largest, meanest looking Jiralhanae that Thel has ever seen casually walked behind Cyn, wearing a cloak on his back and the Fist of Rukt in his limb ripping palms. Arbiter's eyes widened, knowing the Brute was going to kill her. With a last ounce of his voice, he tried to warn her.

"BEHIND YOU! LOOK OUT!" But she still stood there.

The large Jiralhanae swung the hammer at Cynder's right side, knocking her across the place. She slid along the dark floor, with an unknown amount of bones broken within her fragile body. Thel couldn't watch his dragoness friend die like this. He looked upon the ground to try and block out the visual event, but he couldn't block out her screams of agony and pain.

The Brute walked up to the body broken dragoness and prepared to deliver the final blow. The last thing Thel heard of Cynder was her last deathly scream and the sound of something heavy crushing an organic creature.

The Brute turned around to look at the emotionally destroyed Arbiter. An evil menacing voice came from its maw, "They're all dead Arbiter…AND YOU'RE NEXT!"

"NO!" Thel jumped up from his bed, sweating like he's never sweated before. His helmet and neck armour was on the floor across the room. Be breathed in and out with quick speed but gradually slew down when he checked his surroundings. He was in one of the Grand Atrium's rooms for visitors, and the sun was just rising as it shined through his window to light up his day, but his sleep was the worst he's ever had, much worse than ones of the Flood he had before the war ended.

"It was…it was just a nightmare…but it felt too real to be one" he laid his head back on the now drenched pillow. What his nightmare about. Why was he haunted and foretold like this?


	9. A warrior's promise

In Spyro's room, Sparx slowly woke up from his slumber. His vision was blurry at first, so he wiped his eyes to get a better view of the room. He yawned quite loudly, but that wasn't enough to wake up Spyro...or Cynder.

"Huh...whose that sleeping with...wh...WHY IS SHE HERE!" he backed against the wall as he saw the black Dragoness. He didn't like sleeping in the same room as she did, especially since she was so close to Spyro.

"Spyro, dude, get up! Miss Terror of the skies is sleeping right next to you!" the little dragonfly tried to wake him from his sleep. He wanted the purple dragon to get away from Cynder. Spyro was rudely awaken by Sparx's pleads and slowly raised his head. He kept his wing over the dragoness he loves. He seemed to like comforting Cynder. He then draws his attention to Sparx.

"Alright, what was the point of you getting me up?" Spyro immediately wanted to know.

"The point? THE POINT? THE POINT IS UNDER YOUR FREAKING WING!" Sparx was talking about Cynder, why was she sleeping in the same room as he was, when she does have one to herself.

"I let her sleep here after we got back from the infirmary. I thought we could both...snuggle in I guess, especially after what happened last night" he told Sparx, then averted his attention to Cynder again, to see that she was still asleep.

He couldn't resist looking at her. Her eyes closed and slow gentle breathing made Spyro want to comfort her even more, but he didn't want to wake her up. Instead, he gently placed a kiss on Cynder's forehead, like last time. This disgusted Sparx.

"Oh god! You guys aren't...I think I'm gonna throw up!" Sparx was horrified by the idea that Spyro is in love with Cynder. He hated it.

"Think what you want Sparx, but me and Cynder have been through a lot in the past couple of years...and I've had enough of fighting. I want a normal life, and so does Cynder. I don't need you to run it" Spyro is quite sick of Sparx's attitude towards Cynder. Someone needed to teach the little dragonfly a lesson.

"I'm not! I'm just thinking it's a bad idea to be so close to the creature that tried to kill us one time!" Sparx then reminded Spyro of Cynder's past.

"Sparx...what have I told you before! She was corrupted! I told you a dozen times!" Spyro told the dragonfly once again.

"Whatever...I'm going down to get something to eat. Whenever you're done cuddling with the creature of darkness, come down too" Sparx flew out the window, leaving Spyro to spend some time with Cynder.

As Sparx left, Cynder just started opening her eyes. Surprisingly, she did not hear the argument between Spyro and Sparx. As she lifted her head, she just noticed Spyro's left wing was over her body, knowing why she enjoyed her sleep so much.

"Good morning Cynder, How'd you sleep?" Spyro, politely as possible, asked Cynder.

"Good morning to you too. I slept very well, considering what has happened in the past couple of days...I like how you've got your wing over me" she said with a seducing tone of voice. Spyro just realized he still did have it over her, but he folded it back next to him and felt a little blush come on to him. Cynder gave him a friendly smile.

"Well, I think it's time we got out of bed isn't it?" Cynder asked him whilst she stood up.

"Yeah, c'mon then" Spyro also stood up and walked to the door. He opened it to let Cynder exit first.

In the mess hall of the building, a few Mole guards sat down to eat their breakfast. Arbiter on the other hand, was sitting by himself, block out the images he can remember from his nightmare. It scarred his soul. The mess hall was quite large. The place was much larger than what the guardians use for meetings. The place was quite crowded as Moles who live in the Atrium are getting served breakfast by other Moles in a chef's uniform. Thel wasn't hungry though.

"For some reason...that Chieftain looked too real. Grr! why can't I forget these images!" Arbiter was still suffering from the horrific nightmare in his head.

"Darst and Shin...and Cynder, I can't let them die for what I've done!" Thel concluded that he let his crew and Rtas die in the crash. It was a sad to see him in this state.

Luckily, Shin was just walking along. From the look in his dark blue eyes, he has just woken up, and looked starved. He was passing by Thel and decided to sit down next to him.

"Morning Thel. Sleep well last night?" Shin was curious about how the Arbiter slept. Thel did not want to talk about his nightmare, it could make things worse for him.

"I...I slept pretty well...I guess. How about you?" Arbiter just wanted to get out of his answer and ask Shin.

"Eh, it was pretty good, though I was glad to not sleep in a cave this time. But right now, I would like to get something tender to eat" Shin scanned around for any nearby chefs to order his meal. Thel only sighed, trying to forget the nightmare. He looked around to not find Darst anywhere. The Arbiter wanted to know where he is.

"Shin...where's Darst?" he questioned the blue armoured.

"He got up early. He told me that he was going to help the furballs rebuild the Library he burnt down last night. He said it's a way to redeem himself after attacking you and Cynder. It's like he has a different side of him, I mean, he's still a little on the rage side, but there has been some change in him" this information was quite intriguing to the Arbiter. Knowing that even if Darst's insanity did almost end up killing both him and Cynder, he's trying to reclaim his honour by helping the locals. It's not what an Elite usually does, but it's the only way he's going wipe out his insanity for good.

"Ok, I'll let him be for now" Thel lowered his head closer to the table.

Shin gave out a worried expression, it's like he knew how Thel was feeling. He then noticed a Mole in a chef's uniform and decided to call out to him.

"Hey you, yea you, come over here" Shin called out, capturing the chef's attention.

"Yes sir?" the Mole asked Shin.

"Yes, what do you normally serve around here?" the Elite wanted to know what he could order.

"Well in the mornings, we normally make some rice's and cooked eggs, but since you aren't Moles, I guess I could bring you cooked slices of tender meat of Deer?" the chef offered.

"Hmm, I think I'll have that, Arbiter, you want anything?" he turned his attention to Thel.

"No, I'm not hungry, I'll pass" Thel declined to have anything to eat.

"Excellent, more for me" Shin turned his attention back towards the Mole.

The chef nodded and went into the kitchen areas to get Shin's order. Whilst he did that, Shin wanted to know what made Thel pass up Breakfast.

"Ok, seriously, something is not right. What's wrong?" curious to ask Thel.

"It's nothing of your concern Tarscar, ok? I...may have had a bit of a rough night. I'm still tired and...I think I got a headache" The Arbiter did look tired from the state of his eyes, but it also looks like he's seen a ghost.

"Well...why don't you get back into bed then? The past weeks have been exhausting for you, I mean, you killed Truth. And with the help of that Spartan, the both of you destroyed the Ark and the Flood, you deserve a well earned break Arbiter" Shin recapped Thel's events during the war. The silver armoured Sangheili only dropped his head on the table thanks to tiredness.

The chef Mole brought Shin's food. It was a bunch of stripped pieces of cooked deer meat, it is unknown what parts they were of the animal.

"Hmm...smells good enough, you sure you don't want any?" Shin turning his attention to Arbiter.

"No it's yours, you have it" Thel raised his head and looked at different areas of the mess hall.

Shin shrugged his shoulders and began to dig into the meat. He didn't have any utensils to eat it with so he used hands to rip the meat into tiny pieces and swallowed it down, since he doesn't have jaws to chew with. Thel looked at the corridor that was the exit and entry into the mess hall. He spotted Cynder and Spyro walking out of it. This gave Thel a small sense of relief that Cynder was ok and not dead like in his nightmare. The young Dragons spotted Thel and Shin, and decided to sit at the same table as the Elites were, which was in one of the corners of the room. They hopped onto the seats across from the 2 Sangheili.

"Good morning Shin, Thel" Spyro happily greeted them.

"Good morning to you Spyro and Cynder" Shin replied kindly.

"Morning Shin...so Arbiter, did you have a good sleep last night?" Cynder asked him and gave him a warm smile.

Thel slowly raised his head to stare at Cynder and gave her a dull, pale expression. She was now concerned.

"Thel, what's wrong?" she knows something's not right.

"It's nothing Cynder, I'm just tired" Thel responded with a lie. He didn't want Cynder to know about his nightmare.

"There is something wrong, please tell me" she didn't want to be ignored, she wanted to know what's happened. Shin also became concerned.

"Thel, I'm now starting to think it's not tiredness or exhaustion. Please come clean" Shin demanded. Even if Arbiter was a superior officer, that doesn't mean it will stop Shin.

"He's been like this all morning?" Spyro asked Shin about Thel's state.

"As much as I know, I found him sitting like this. What is it Arbiter, tell us now" Shin was getting quite impatient.

"Please Thel, I want to help you" Cynder pleaded the Sangheili.

Arbiter sighed deeply. Maybe he had to tell them. Besides, it's only a nightmare, what harm is it gonna do.

"Alright, I'll tell you, just don't get disturbed by it...last night...I had a nightmare...Shin...you and Darst were both in it" Shin, Cynder and Spyro listened closely Arbiter's tale.

"It was all dark. I was all alone. It felt so real, yet it was imagined. All of a sudden...Rtas and some of the crew of the Shadow came out of the darkness" Thel paused for a second to gather everything he could remember from last night.

"Wait, Rtas? The former shipmaster and the one who lead our fleet to victory above the Ark?" Shin asked the instant Thel stopped.

"Yes...and my friend...him and the crew were all killed at the crash...I felt a cold shiver come over me as I saw them...I...I don't want to tell you about what I said to Rtas or what he said back...but he disappeared, as well as the other crew members".

"That's awful...seeing a friend right before your eyes, knowing that he's already dead" Cynder felt sorry for Thel. She could not imagine how Thel felt right now.

"Believe me Cynder...It frightened me...when they vanished, I saw Shin and Darst standing alone" Thel continued, surprising Shin with the last couple of words.

"Shin...you and Darst were attacked by Brutes with hammers...you died horribly by the beasts weapons...I don't want to go there..." a sudden shock came over Shin.

"Killed...by Brutes? what about Darst?" Shin wanted to know about Darst's fate.

"He put up a good fight against them, but a Scarab lumbered over to him. It ignored me, even though it saw me. Darst was killed by the front beam weapon. I swear I could hear his dying screams" Thel almost had a tear come on to him.

"Arbiter...I'm sorry. But it's ok, it's just a nightmare" Cynder tried to cheer up Thel.

"I know, but it felt so real...and Cynder...you were there too" Cynder got a sudden surprise. She was in his nightmare as well?

"You were there, all by yourself, I told you to leave this place...before you could do anything, some massive Brute Chieftain attacked you from behind. He wielded the Fist of Rukt, Tartarus's weapon, the Brute I told you about already. He was huge, the largest Brute I've ever seen. He attacked you Cynder. He knocked you down first to disable you. You were in immense pain. And suddenly...the chieftain, crushes you with the hammer...I didn't want to look at what remained of you, but the only I could remember from your demise was your scream...oh, the horror..." Thel finished up his story. Cynder froze in shock. Not only she was in the nightmare, but she died a horrible, miserable death...she died in vain.

"I...I can't believe it...I...died?" Cynder was at a loss for words. Shin was just as shocked.

"Arbiter, are you going to be alright?" Spyro asked Thel. The Sangheili Arbiter was close to releasing tears. Even Elites can get emotional.

"I'm fine...but I'm going to make sure that this nightmare does not come true" Thel promised himself.

"Look, I can take care of myself Arbiter, please, don't get paranoid if something happens to me" Shin assured the Arbiter.

"I know you can Shin, I have every faith that you can fight strong and proud against the Brutes" Thel placed his right hand on Shin's left shoulder. He gave the blue armoured Elite a confident kind of expression.

"But Cynder, I want come with me for a minute" Thel asked Cynder to come a little further away from the table.

She looked at Spyro to see if he would let her go alone with Thel. He slowly nodded to give her permission. The young dragoness jumped off her seat and followed Arbiter around a dark corner. He lowered down to her level.

"Cynder...I'm starting to think that I let Rtas and the rest of the Shadow's crew die, I commanded that ship as well as everyone onboard. It was my responsibility that we all get back to Sangehilios safely, our homeworld. Now, I don't think we'll ever get home. The Brutes are hunting us down, and this city is in danger because of us" Thel was worried about that if the Brutes find Warfang, all could be lost.

"Arbiter, you didn't let almost everyone die. It wasn't your fault. The Brutes are the ones responsible for killing them. Also, your ship crashed here and you didn't even know that we lived here, how were you able to avert that?" Cynder tried to make Thel blame the Brutes for all that has happened, which she was right.

"But If we were able to avoid moving our ship closer to your planet, we would have avoided the Brute ships altogether. Now look what's happened" he didn't want to convince himself about Cynder's points. Thel gave her a sad look.

"I promise you, we can help stop the Brutes. Although they look and sound dangerous, we can try to help and protect you as long as we all live" Cynder made that promise to him, but this sets Thel to worrying state.

"Cynder...when Rtas died, I started to trust you when you led us all to safety. By then, I considered you...as a friend. The Spartan I fought with during the last days of the Human-Covenant war, I also had him as a friend and great ally, even though both our races didn't start off so well" Thel explained his partnership with the Master chief. Cynder paid great interest to what Thel was saying.

"Young dragoness...please do not die by the Brutes hands...I cannot bring myself to see that. I don't want you to suffer for my mistakes. I bet Spyro does not want to see your body laying on the ground with blood either...I know that you had dark, sinful past, but that's all behind you now" Thel knew about Cynder's past when the guardians told him, and he felt sorry for her. She lowered her head, remembering those days. Shaking it off, she resumed to listening to Arbiter again.

"The one thing I've really noticed during my time in this city, is that the rumours of your race's extinction event is starting to come true. Even if there are more Dragons outside those walls, for now, it seems that you and Spyro are your races only hope for the future. Until I find a way to leave this planet, I'm making it my duty to keep you safe, as well as Spyro. It's a way that I can repay for helping me and the others stay out of harm's way" Thel has now begun to be protective over Cynder.

"Thel...I can protect myself. But thank you...at least, besides Spyro, someone's going to be looking out for me" she put a small smile on her face and Arbiter also gave a smiling expression.

"It's my pleasure. C'mon, let's go back to the table, I'm sure you want something tender to eat" Thel stood back up from kneeling on the floor. Cynder's stomach started to make a noise, lucky enough that Thel didn't hear it.

"Um...well now that you mention it, I am feeling a little hungry" Cynder walked out of the dark corner with Arbiter in front of her.

"Thought so...oh, and don't say to me that you and Spyro didn't sleep together last night" Arbiter knew about Cynder spending last night sleeping with Spyro.

"How...how did you know?" Cynder stuttered that Thel knew about it.

"Trust me, I know these things...there could be little baby Dragons running around this place in no time" Thel gave a grinned expression on his face after that sentence, causing Cynder to freeze where she stood. She actually thought about what Thel said, then put a little grin on her face.

Elsewhere in the world, a little far from the from the city, Prowlus, Jabjab, Yapflop, Meadow and the two cheetah guards, carrying the Grunt's weapons very carefully, walked along the plains, which was very clear with few clouds in sight, and very little to no trees around. Though, the whole area was not silent.

"Are there yet? are we there yet? are we there yet? are we there yet?" Yapflop has been asking the same question for quite some time now. He's been asking it ever since they left the village. This really started to irritate Prowlus.

"No we are not there yet! We still got a bit of a journey's walk, so shut up and keep moving" He ordered Yapflop. It was quiet for at least 15 seconds until

"Are we there yet? are we there yet? are we there yet?" Yapflop continued.

"Grr, freaking Grunts!" Prowlus cursed. Jabjab ignored Yapflop most of the way, so it didn't bother him. Meadow on the other hand was covering his ears from Yapflop's annoyance. The guards could easily ignore the orange Grunt, but the fuel rod gun was very hard to carry, especially with the shape of it.

"How come you get to carry the smaller gun?" the guard carrying the fuel rod asked the other with a real cocky British accent.

"Because I could pull a few muscles carrying that thing, you're doing a good job with it so stop moaning" the other guard, also with a British accent, didn't want to bother helping his friend with the large weapon.

They journeyed on, with Yapflop still annoying the group, through the plains. Jabjab looked up in the sky. It was clear to see a very small object, though only if you looked hard enough. At first, he thought it was his imagination, but from the sight of it moving, it was the Brute Cruiser.

"Uh-oh" Jabjab thought to himself. He hurried up next to Yapflop.

"Are we there yet? are we there-" Yapflop was interrupted by Jabjab's shoulder poking.

"Dude, look up there. Do you know what that is?" Jabjab pointed directly where the Cruiser was. Yapflop looked up.

"Oh no..." Yapflop's eyes widened.

"I know..." Jabjab said with a low voice.

"It's...It's...a blue sky...how dangerous is that" Yapflop couldn't see the Cruiser, instead, the sky itself.

"Oh for god's sake, not that, look closely" Jabjab asked him, but Yapflop ignored him and returned to his habit.

"Are we there yet? are we there yet?" Yapflop continued his pesky routine.

"Well there goes the moment of silence" Meadow was unhappy that the peace was gone...again.

Jabjab moaned. He tried to get Yapflop to look at the moving Cruiser, but his ignorance got the best of the orange Grunt.

As the group moved on, the threat in the sky was indeed entering atmosphere. The Prophet's vengeance was moving at a slow speed to avoid being burnt up, unlike what happened the Shadow or the Grunt's Phantom. The ship was escorted and protected by Seraph fighters and Banshee attack craft. Luckily, the Cruiser's navigation to land the ship at a safe spot was incredibly far away from Prowlus's group and the city. The ship was a monstrous size, even if the Covenant Super Carriers were larger, it was still a huge threat to any ground or space force. The cleansing beam, the same weapon used to take down Arbiter's ship, was at the belly of the beast. The 3 spines at the head were just a nice feature to increase fear in the hearts and minds of its enemies. As it closed into the ground, the landscape below was a forest area, a Brutes kind of habitat. Though, the Phantoms were not the first to leave the Cruiser to land Jiralhanae forces. Near the cleansing beam weapon, a large hatch opened to drop in something big. When the hatch fully opened, the Brutes only Scarab walker jumped out of the Cruiser. The massive walker used it's jets to slow down its decent to the ground, but still landing hard enough to make dirt fly up into the air. It lumbered across the landscape to secure a good landing zone for the incoming Phantoms. The Cruiser hovered above the Scarab and the area around it. Phantoms were deployed out of its hangers, carrying troops, Wraiths and Brute Chopper vehicles. The dropships hovered just above the ground, allowing large number of Jiralhanae to deploy. Their Chieftain was the last one to come off the ships.

"All packs, spread out, prepare to make this place our base of operations, we'll probably be staying on this planet for a little while . If you come across anything that is not part of our force...annihilate it" Magnaruckus gave out his orders to the rest of the Brutes. The Chieftain was still carrying the Fist of Rukt with him. No Brute dared to challenge Magnaruckus for leadership.

The Scarab dominated all it stood before it. Any obstacles the walker encounters is either met by walking over it or being destroyed with the front beam weapon. The choppers carved the land for the foot soldiers to move around. The landscape going from a lush, green forest, to a wasteland of nothing but Brute activity. The Phantoms keep on bringing down more troops from the Cruiser to keep the their new base. The Jiralhanae has now set foot on the Dragon's home world.

"Sir, our Scarab has scouted a large portion of the area without any resistance standing before it, and our troops are ready to make some small structures to complete the base" A Brute stalker ranked stood before his leader. This put a menacing smile on the Chieftain, pleased to know everything was according to plan.

"Excellent. When you get the chance, message the Scarab to report back here at the base. I think we've got enough land for our forces to make camp" The Chieftain looked in the distance to see Wraith falling in with a group of Brute foot soldiers.

"Sir, if there is more resistance than just the Elites, what do we do with them?" the stalker asked his superior.

"That's anyone's choice, you can kill them or bring them back and use them for food, but if you capture anything that looks interesting to us, bring it back alive, understood?" Magnaruckus demanded the stalker.

"Yes sir. It can be done" the stalker walked away to tell the rest of the force. The chieftain snarled.

"Arbiter...wait until I find you heretic" Magnaruckus spoke with a deep voice.

Back in Warfang where the Library is, Darst was helping the Moles rebuild the Library, after the incident last night. Even if the Moles were small in stature, they were quite the experts at building and rebuilding structures, which might explain the size of the city. Darst was on the roof taking burnt out pieces of stone to replace with a much better sandstone material, which seems more fireproof. To him, the sandstone was as light as a feather, which makes the job a little easier.

"Ung...now I feel really stupid for burning this place" He has been helping all morning, which means he has had only a few hours sleep. His eyes were strained to the limit and tiredness was starting to get the better of him. He yawns a couple of times every minute when a Mole brings some sandstone material to him.

Shin was just walking by the Library to check on the zealot's job. He looked up the roof to see his friend working really hard. Shin gave out smiling expression, knowing that Darst is doing what he promised. Darst suddenly noticed Shin down below him.

"Ah, Shin" Darst called out while coming down from the roof.

"Well, it seems your doing a fine job" Shin complemented Darst's handiwork.

"Yeah, it's getting there. So how was your morning?" Darst was curious to know Shin's recent events.

"It wasn't bad. The meal that the Moles served me was quite satisfactory, but Arbiter wasn't really himself today" Shin explained his morning. Darst then wanted to know about Thel.

"Why, what happened to him?" before Shin could answer back, a Mole from one of the guard towers on the wall called out.

"Contact, north of the entrance, moving straight towards the front gate!" he shouted out.

A few metres from the front of the gates, Prowlus's group finally arrived at Warfang. Yapflop finally stopped his yapping.

"Finally!" Prowlus was relieved that Yapflop stopped.

"Whoa...now that's a wall" Jabjab was amazed by the size of the entrance and the city walls.

"Hmm...I don't like it, let's go back to the village, it was smaller there" Yapflop turned around.

"NO!" everyone suddenly said, even Jabjab. This actually shut up Yapflop.

"Hey, Mole, open the gates!" Prowlus shouted at the Mole who was guarding the mechanism to open and close the gates.

"Who are you first off?" the little furball shouted back.

"My name's chief Prowlus, leader of the cheetah tribe, I demand that you open the gates so I could speak to the guardians about these...annoying pests" Prowlus referred to the Grunts. Jabjab growled, unhappy of what Prowlus said.

"Hmm...all right, give me a minute" the Mole went to open the doors.

Darst and Shin were wondering who was at the gates. If it was Brutes, they would've attacked. No, this was something else to them. Spyro and Cynder heard the Mole's shouting and decided to go to the front gates themselves by air. They landed not quite far from where Darst and Shin were. Arbiter also heard shouting, and decided to go to the gates himself. He stopped right next to Cynder, to her surprise. The gates started to open slowly, and started revealing who was behind the gates. All of a sudden, the Grunts were staring at the Elites. Shin and Darst's eyes widened in shock with an unhappy expression.

"Hey Elites!" Yapflop shouted.

"Oh, by the Gods!" Shin and Darst said at the exact same time.

**A nice quite long one chapter for once. Review if you'd like to, give me any advice and I hope you enjoyed it =)**


	10. The mental breakdown

**Hey guys, another chapter up. I have recently done a one-shot, involving Dr Richtofen and the Meta from RvB, called "Call of the Meta". If you have the time, check it out and review it. It's up to you. Any way's, let's keep this one going.**

Yapflop ran up to Darst and Shin, who stood there in shock to see that a Grunt is actually on this planet as well. Most of the Grunts that sided with the Elites after the split from the Covenant were all killed, as well as the Hunters that sided with the Sangheili. They had their mandibles dropped. Yapflop jumped and collided into Shin, causing him to fall back off his feet. Yapflop had Shin by his neck, unwilling to let go. Darst only watched his friend get tortured by the Grunt on top of him. Arbiter's eyes widened at the sight of the 2 Grunts and just remembered...how annoying Unggoy are.

"You have got to be kidding me" Thel muttered to himself.

"What's wrong? what are those things?" Cynder asked him.

"Cynder...they're called Unggoy. Also known as Grunts. I like the term Grunt better for these brainless idiots" Thel explained what Jabjab and Yapflop were.

"I...see. They're almost as small as the Moles" Cynder tried to compare the 2 races in size.

"But they're twice as ugly" Spyro described the Grunts.

"And a thousand times more annoying, believe me. They had a rivalry against another race in the Covenant called the Jackals, which none of us rarely paid attention to" Thel continued. Cynder turned back to the Grunt that was holding on tightly to Shin.

"Get off me you little runt, a little help here Darst?" Shin turned to the crimson Elite for help. Darst grabbed the Yapflop's back pack and held him up high, releasing Shin in the process and staring at the zealot's dark purple eyes.

"Uh...hi, sorry, I got carried away" Yapflop started trembling at the sight of how large Darst was.

"Ung, I cannot stand Grunts, you always seemed to fail our missions, I'm surprised you even survived the war" Darst dropped Yapflop on the solid ground hard. The little Grunt got back up, whilst feeling a little bit of pain.

"Ow, you didn't have to do that" Yapflop looked up to Darst.

"Tough, I just did" Darst walked away from Yapflop, standing next to Shin who just got back up himself.

Hunter came by to see what all the fuss was about. He was surprised to see Prowlus, Meadow and the two guards with the weapons. Rarely does Prowlus even come out of the village, so this was indeed a surprise visit.

"Chief Prowlus? What brings you here to the dragon city?" he questioned his chief.

"What brings me here? I think it's kinda obvious. These Grunts crash landed their ship right next to the village, luckily, no damage was done, but I want to see if the guardians knew anything about these creatures" Prowlus answered back respectfully. Hunter looked at Jabjab and Yapflop, who were standing next to each other, waiting to see what unfolds.

"They're quite...unique" Hunter discriminated the Grunts, even though, they are very stupid.

" That they are, they're also quite humorous at times, but also very annoying" Prowlus turned to Cynder and Spyro.

"Hm, it's you two Dragons again. At least you came back safely after your fight with the Dark master" Prowlus said to the young dragons, not even saying a hello. To both Cynder and Spyro, it was kinda disrespectful.

"Hello back to you Prowlus" Spyro sarcastically said back to the cheetah. Cynder narrowed her eyes down. Not one bit of her liked Prowlus.

"Spare me the pleasentr-" Prowlus was cut off by the sight as he saw Arbiter right next to the young Dragons. The eyes of the chief widened in surprise and shock. Arbiter gave a dirty look to the cheetah. Something told the Elite that Prowlus was bad news.

"What is that abomination?" Prowlus backed up by the sight of the Arbiter. He turned to his right and saw Darst and Shin standing just a few feet away from him.

"What are you things?" Prowlus backed up between the guards. Meadow was not afraid of the Elites, but Prowlus had a hint of fear in his heart. First the Grunts, now these things? Reality was getting stranger by the hour.

"Do not fear these noble creatures, they are in great need of the dragon's hospitality, they won't hurt you" Hunter assured his chief.

"This is the first time I've seen Prowlus like this" Spyro grinned at the sight of the cheetah chief fearing at the sight of Elites. Cynder giggled inside her body.

"How do I know that these beasts won't attack me?" Prowlus demanded from Hunter.

"Because the Elites are in grave danger" Terrador spoke to Prowlus while starting to land on the ground. He came down from the Atrium when the Moles told him.

"Elites? is that what they call you?" Prowlus turned his attention to Arbiter.

"Yes Prowlus. You may call me the Arbiter, I do not wish for you to call me by my real name" Arbiter walked up right in front of Prowlus. A voice in Prowlus's mind told him to get defensive, but he resisted.

"I see. Where did you come from Arbiter?" Prowlus asked Arbiter with some degree of respect, but Thel still didn't like the attitude towards him.

"I came from my own planet of course, Sangheilios." Arbiter smirked. He didn't want to tell Prowlus about how he crashed here or how he was lead to safety. Thel turned to Shin and Darst.

"Shin, Darst, I need you to take those weapons off those cheetah's, we'll need them. Also, take those Grunts to the Atrium, ask them questions concerning the Brutes" he ordered Shin and Darst.

"But Thel, I need to get back to working with the Moles to fix that building" Darst wanted to finish fixing the building as soon as possible, but Arbiter wanted information about the Brutes immediately.

"Give it a rest for a bit, you still got a whole day ahead of you, now take the weapons and take the Grunts back to the Atrium" Arbiter was getting a tiny bit impatient. He needed to know what the Brutes are planning.

Darst sighed and turned Shin and said "C'mon then". They both walked over to the guards to take the Grunt's weapons. Shin took the needler whilst Darst took the fuel rod gun, who was able to carry the weapon with ease, to the guard's relief that he doesn't have to carry it anymore. Jabjab and Yapflop followed Darst and Shin to the huge building in the centre of town. Arbiter stayed with Cynder and Spyro.

"I must thank you for bringing those Grunts here, as well as the weapons. I might as well leave you to your business" Thel backed off from the cheetah leader and went stood right next to Cynder once more.

"That you will Elite. Terrador, I must ask you this. Do you know anything about these Grunts?" Prowlus asked the green guardian, but even Terrador did not know anything about the little Unggoy

"I'm sorry Prowlus, but I don't know anything about them. From the reactions of the orange one though, it seems the Elites know everything about them. If you want any info, I think Arbiter knows" Terrador turned his eyes towards Thel. Prowlus suddenly had a change of thought.

"Eh, forget about it then. At least I won't have to hear the orange one bother me for as long as I live, they're your problem now" Prowlus turned towards Hunter as soon as he finished his sentence.

"Hunter, I need you to come back to the village right now, you've spent enough time with the Dragons and it's about time you come home" Prowlus demanded Hunter to come back to the village with him and Meadow.

"Is there a reason to this?" Hunter was objecting to go back. He wanted to stay in Warfang.

"I order you to come back to the village! Now do as your told and come!" the chief turned around and stood near the gates, waiting for Hunter. Hunter sighed in defeat. He turned his attention to Spyro, Cynder and Arbiter.

"Looks like I have to depart for now. It's been an honour spending time with you and with the other Dragons, Spyro. Thank you for all that you've done for us" Hunter thanked the purple Dragon for all that has happened.

"Thanks for all your help Hunter. Be safe on your return trip" Spyro said his farewell to Hunter. The cheetah turned his attention Cynder.

"Cynder, I hope all goes well for now that the Dark master is no more. Good luck and have a pleasant life here" Hunter spoke his farewell quite calmly to Cynder.

"Thanks Hunter. I hope everything goes well for you and the village" Cynder warmly replied. Hunter then turned his attention to Arbiter.

"Arbiter. It has been a pleasure meeting you and the other Elites" Hunter held out his hand shake Thel's.

"Likewise Hunter. Stay out of any trouble" Thel shook Hunter's hand whilst speaking to the cheetah.

"That, my friend, is something I cannot avoid, unfortunately" Hunter gave a grinned expression whilst Thel huffed, with respect.

Hunter turned to the gates, following Meadow and the guards to where Prowlus was waiting. All the cheetah's then left the gates, as they started to close, blocking the cats from the dragon's.

"Has your time with the Dragons been well spent?" Prowlus asked Hunter whilst they journeyed back to the village.

"It was Prowlus. But when we get back, I'll have to tell you and everyone else some bad news" Hunter wanted to tell the other cheetah's about the Brute threat.

"Then save it for when we get back" Prowlus looked straight ahead to see where he was going.

Back inside the city, the crowds of Moles dispersed and continued their daily lives. Arbiter was talking to Terrador about the Grunts arrival and where they are right now. Cynder and Spyro watched them from afar but a certain voice interrupted the moment.

"Spyro! dude, where have you been? I told you to come down to the markets when you were done cuddling with her!" Sparx flew up next to the purple dragon's head. Cynder let out a long sigh, Unhappy that Sparx was once again here.

"I didn't want to bother coming down to the markets. Sorry Sparx" Spyro apologised for letting Sparx be alone. The little dragonfly was quite furious and wanted to where he's been.

"Don't sorry Sparx me! So where have you been then?" Sparx demanded, with a hint of anger in his face.

"We were in the mess hall this morning, we went to see how Arbiter and Shin slept, and we came down here as soon as Prowlus and Meadow arrived, with a couple these...Grunts" Spyro explained his absence to the little dragonfly.

"Wait, you'd rather spend time with split jaws over there then with me?" Sparx pointed at Thel without looking, unaware the Elite is right behind him. Spyro and Cynder looked up at him.

"Wait, why are you looking...he's behind isn't me" the young dragons slowly nodded. Sparx turned around with Thel's face right in front of him, the Elite's eyes narrowed down.

"What did you call me light bulb?" Thel's voice was suddenly low and deep, hinting that he heard Sparx's insult.

"You heard me, ever since you came here, you have been making my life a little miserable, I mean, you're friend well...pfft, made the Library burn up and flames and you kinda took my brother away from me this morning when I told him to come down to where I was afterwards" Sparx explained, getting Thel a little irritated.

"Look Sparx, I've had a tense morning, I didn't take Spyro away or whatever, we only talked and that's it, and what Darst did to the building, he is trying to help the Moles rebuild it back to its former glory, as a matter of fact, he is doing most of the work!" Arbiter was trying to end this pointless argument as quickly, but Sparx continued his bitterness towards the Elite.

"But still, all was perfect until you showed up! Have you ever noticed that?" and at that sudden moment, Arbiter's heart's were stricken. Sparx was actually right at that point. Ever since the Elites arrived, only chaos was brought.

"And now, if your right, those Brute thing you were talking about yesterday are going to walk up to our front door, blow it up and kill us all, thanks a lot, we live through one war, we go through another, that's what happened, all thanks to you!" Sparx's words were impaling Thel in the hearts and mind. A sad expression was brought on the Arbiter's face. He brought the doom and destruction upon the Dragon homeworld and now, everyone is going to pay the price. Cynder could not help but see the sad look in his eyes.

"It's all your fault. Maybe if you turn yourself in to those Brute things, maybe they'll leave happily and no one else suffer" Sparx crossed his arms and turned around with eyes closed, not wanting to see Arbiter anymore. Thel slowly looked down on the ground. He thought himself at that instance.

"Maybe he's right. If I turn myself in, I'll tell the Brutes that no one else survived the crash, and Shin and Darst plus maybe the Grunts would be able to survive this whole thing. And the Dragons, they will then never have to see the Brutes at their front door, none of them will suffer from them...Not Spyro, not the guardians, not the Moles...not even Cynder" Thel started to go with Sparx's suggestion.

"Arbiter?" Cynder took a step closer to Arbiter, knowing that he has been hurt by Sparx's words. Arbiter looked up at the dragonfly.

"Well then lightbulb, maybe I will. Then, maybe, you will be able to see that I was trying to help you in this cause, trying to befriend with all of you, but you can't see that. I might as well go to the Brutes and tell them to rip my head off from my shoulders, then they'll leave this planet! I die, everyone lives! No one will have to suffer...In short, I'm giving my life so the rest of you can live" Arbiter was being very serious about this. Sparx turned around and stared at Thel, shocked to know that he's actually going to do it. Cynder couldn't believe what she was hearing. She ran straight in front of Thel, attempting to make him not go through with this.

"Arbiter, don't listen to Sparx, It's not your fault, I told you this already! We'll be able to stop them, someway but you can't throw away your life like this, you've hardly been able to experience your own normal life on your planet!" Cynder was desperate to stop him with this decision. Her heart would not allow him to go through with this.

"But Cynder, what Sparx says is true, the Brutes have been after me this whole time, If they're given what they want, they're most likely to leave. I have to do this. It will save everyone in this city, as well as the entire planet" Arbiter assured her, but Cynder wasn't ready to give up.

"No, I'm not letting you go. All of us will help you stop them. I told you already, it's not your fault that those monsters are here, no one knew this was going to happen, we can deal with it!" she kept on trying to convince him, but to no avail.

"Young dragoness, It will be much quicker if I did this, and less blood will be spilt. You can live on without having to fight another battle. It's for your safety, as well as for everyone else's" Arbiter explained. He swore that he saw tears well up in her eyes.

"But Thel...you're my friend...Spyro is the closest I have to a friend...besides him, I have no one else in the world" Cynder's tears then started slowly coming down. Her cheeks had little wet trails of sorrow coming down from her eyes. She didn't want her friend from another world to die for everyone else's. Spyro has never seen Cynder this sad since she left the temple that night years ago.

"I'm sorry...but I'm going, and no one is going to stopping me, not Shin, not Darst, not the guardians...not even you" Arbiter lowered down to her level. Spyro came to Cynder's side to put a wing over her and brought her close to his side, it's like he could feel her pain that she was going through. The thought of losing a friend.

"Arbiter, she's right, you can't go to the Brutes. Even if they do get what they're given, what if they're not finished here yet. What if you are dead but they will still continue to stay here? Your sacrifice will be all for nothing, you must stay here, we'll find a way to stop them" Spyro then tried to convince Thel to not go, but he won't be turned.

"We'll find out won't we? I'm sorry Spyro, but I stand with my decision, it might be the best choice we've got right now" Arbiter slowly raised his hand gently pat Cynder on her cheeks to get rid of her tears, assuring her its all going to be fine, but then he swore he heard her whisper "It's not fair".

Arbiter slowly stood up and walked past the dragons, leaving Spyro to try and comfort Cynder in her time of need, but her heart has been broken into tiny pieces. At any worse time, the clouds covered over the Dragon city. Only grey could be seen in the sky. Spyro looked back to not see Arbiter in his sight. Terrador watched the whole thing. He shook his head, knowing the Arbiter is doing the wrong thing. When Cynder tried to block most of her tears, she turned her sight Sparx.

"You. You made Thel do this!" Cynder walked out from under Spyro's wing and stomped angrily towards Sparx.

"But, I didn't think he would!" Sparx was only joking when he told Thel make this decision. The dragonfly made a grave mistake.

"Your selfishness has gone too far, and now look what you done!" Cynder was able to quickly grab Sparx with her paw for the first time. He was in deep trouble.

"I didn't know he was this concerned about us, let me go!" Sparx was struggling to get out, but Cynder held very tightly, not allowing the dragonfly to escape.

"I don't care what your excuse is for what you done. You did this, your words took him away from me, my friend, but no, it always has to about you isn't it?" She exposed her white teeth at him. Now he was starting to worry, what was she going to do to him?

"I'm sorry Cynder, I didn't mean to! Spyro, a little help please?" he begged for Spyro's help, but even the purple dragon was against him on this.

"Sparx, Arbiter was willing to help us against the Brutes, but now you made him do this. I think that not only the Brutes will kill him, but really, you killed him for making go on this mission!" Spyro was very angry at the dragonfly, and for good reason.

"But...I didn't know, you've got to believe me" Sparx was pleading for their belief, he didn't want this to happen. Suddenly, Cynder released him.

"Sparx...I've lost all respect for you. Don't come near me ever again. I hate you with every part in my body. Go away!" Cynder swished her tail blade at Sparx, narrowly avoiding a lethal attack. Cynder walked away into an ally, only seeing her figure in the darkness. Spyro watched her walk and then turned his attention back to Sparx.

"Spyro...I didn't mean to do any of this" Sparx spoke with a low voice.

"Sparx...stay away from me and Cynder for the rest of the day and think about what you just did. Maybe it can put some sense into you" Spyro then followed Cynder's direction to catch up with her, leaving Sparx all by himself.

Sparx turned to where Terrador was, but the green dragon already left. The dragonfly was suddenly all by himself.

"What have I done?" Sparx whispered to himself.

**So, what do you think? Is it really Arbiter's fault for all this or is Cynder telling the truth? Review your answer. The story is going to start to get really interesting from here. As always, I hope you enjoyed, check out the One shot I made if you have the time and also, have a nice day. A 78 out =).**

**P.S: If you would like me too, I can re-edit chapter 1 like the others I've made to make it more clear for you to read, it's up to you, but I need to know.**


	11. Showdown with the Brutes

Inside the Grand Atrium, the Arbiter was walking quite faster than normal. He wanted to prepare for his journey to find the Brute encampment. As he walked though, he took off the bandages that covered his injuries. The scar was almost wiped off from his arm and the energy sword wound was long gone, only leaving a mark. The moles must have been able to repair his armour though as the sliced metal wasn't there anymore. He needs the information from the Grunts to see if they know where they are. Moles that the Arbiter passed stared at him in confusion, unaware of what he planned to do. As he passed the wooden doors to his left and right, he heard some familiar voices to him on a door to the right. He stood next to it to hear the voices even clearer. It was Darst and Shin interrogating the Grunts. It sounded like they were giving what the Elites want, but Arbiter was the one who needed it most. He barged in by kicking the door open, surprising the Elites and Grunts altogether. Thel instantly went to stand in front of Shin.

"Have they told you anything useful?" Arbiter demanded from Shin. The blue armoured Elite instantly saw the anger in Thel's eyes. This looked like bad news.

"Well Jabjab, the green one, told us about how they betrayed and escaped the Brutes Cruiser and managed to survi-" Shin was interrupted by Arbiter's anger.

"I don't care how they got here Shin, I want to know if the Brutes are on the planet and have already made a base!" Arbiter shouted right in front of Shin's face, placing fear right inside the blue Elite.

"B...but we haven't been able to get up to that part yet Thel, we only started just a few minutes ago" Shin backed up from the Arbiter, scared that he might try something drastic.

"Arbiter, calm down, what's wrong? Why are you acting like this?" Darst knew something was not right. He has never seen Arbiter this angry since the killing of the Brute at the cave, which he was actually quite calm during that time.

"Darst, you are not to be concerned about this, stay out of this!" he pointed at the crimson armoured Elite, which was very disrespectful.

"Hey! is that any way to treat one another?" Darst was shocked to see Thel this angered. He expected Thel to be this angry during the fire, but he's showing it in this room.

"I want to know!" Arbiter went to grab Yapflop by the neck, choking him and blocking his access to breathe the methane in his tank.

"Yapflop! No! Let him go!" Jabjab demanded Arbiter, but his anger blocked out the Grunts pleas.

"Arbiter, drop the Grunt, he's done nothing to you!" Shin ordered the Arbiter, but it was no use and continued to choke him.

"I'll ask you this Unggoy! Where is the Brute encampment?" he shook the Grunt to make him answer. He still held the Yapflop with his right hand, lifting him quite high above foot level. Arbiter, not only was he interrogating Yapflop, but showing his dominance over the Grunt's pathetic stature.

"I DON'T KNOW! LET ME GO!" Yapflop begged to be released, but Thel continued his relentless choking. The orange Grunt could not breathe at all and soon he could die from the lack of methane. Jabjab jumped out of his seat and stood in front of the Arbiter.

"Stop it, release him, I think I know where the Brutes could be!" Jabjab's words penetrated through Thel's angered brain, instantly grabbing his attention. He released Yapflop, dropping him to the ground. He laid there almost unconscious as started to breathe his methane gas once more. Arbiter lowered down to the Grunts height and stared right at him into each other's eyes.

"Well? Where could they be then Grunt?" Arbiter's voice was deep and sounded dark. Jabjab was about to run away, but he did the smart thing (for once) and gave out his answer.

"I saw their Cruiser up in the sky. I...It was moving, it must have descending to the ground. By now, the Brutes might have set up a base. It was going south I think. It would probably be a long journey, you would need like, like a Banshee to find them" Jabjab was only guessing which direction it was, but he was correct. Arbiter stood back up to his own level. Darst stared at him, probably knowing Thel is up to something. Thel stared at him for a moment, then instantly barged out of the room.

"He's up to something Shin. I have to find out, stay with the Grunts, see if the orange one will live" Darst asked Shin of this task as walked out of the room to catch Thel. Shin nodded and went to Yapflop's aid. Jabjab watched he saw Darst walk out of the room in pursuit of the Arbiter.

Arbiter was heading to the armoury to grab a specific object. The armoury was in the small building just at the front of the Atrium. He was almost at running speed. He tried to not attract much attention to himself, but the Moles could not help but watch as he went by. Then they all saw Darst hot on his tail, unwilling to stop until he finds out what Arbiter is up to. Thel then opened the doors of the armoury. He saw multiple weapons from spears and swords, to armour and even round shields. He also saw the spikers, the plasma rifle, plasma grenades, the brute shot, needler and fuel rod. He was interested in the 3 energy sword handles. He walked up to them to grab the handle with way more ancient markings than the others did. It was an Arbiter's sword. He picked it up and then thought to himself

"Maybe I should take it...just in case" Thel then stuffed the handle under a part of his back armour, where no one could see it. He turned around to see Darst blocking his exit. He finally caught up with the Arbiter and now it was time for some answers.

"Alright Thel, I've never seen you act like this for as long I know you. Why did you storm in with anger in your body? why did you threaten Grunts when they never did a damned thing? why are you so interested find the Brute encampment?" Darst wanted answers immediately. He looked in Thel's eyes. He swore he saw the darker being inside Thel, but he must have been seeing things. Suddenly, a voice behind Darst answered his questions.

"He's going to sacrifice himself so the Brutes what they came here for" Cynder was behind the large Elite. He turned around with shock. He could not believe what he was hearing. The Arbiter is willing to die so the Brutes would just leave? It was utter suicide.

"Sparx caused this. He told Thel that if he goes into the Brute encampment and dies by their hands, they would leave without a fuss, saving us from battling them, sparing all our lives. I don't like it at all" Cynder still had the tears in her eyes. Darst suddenly knew why she was crying, because Thel is going to give his life just so everyone would not be able to fight the Brutes.

"Arbiter...is this true?" Darst was staring back into Thel's eyes, like he was seeing into his soul. Thel bowed his head down.

"Darst. I have never been more destroyed in my entire lifetime. The thought of seeing every one of these creatures be killed by savages like the Jiralhanae is something I do not want to see in my life. The Humans, they were able to hold their own against our assaults. I've never seen a resistance like them. But these dragons, these moles, these cheetahs and everything else on this planet...they have had their own war, not with ships or plasma weapons or walkers or anything like that, but with sticks and stones, swords and spears and a whole lot of other non technological weapons" Darst listened to every word the Arbiter was saying. It was true, the moles and cheetahs fought with non tech weapons. The dragons would have to be the more powerful ones with elemental abilities, but they suffered through those times and now they're close to extinction because of it.

"Don't you see Darst? They cannot be allowed to fight the Brutes. They have weapons that are much superior to what anyone has here...we'll all be dead if try to stand our ground" Thel had no confidence that they were going to survive an attack by the Brutes. He'd lost all hope of this ever ending in their favour.

"Arbiter, we'd had to try our very best to stop the Brutes. They don't have very good brains, they can hardly even mount a tactical assault without losing half their force. That's their weak spot, their stupidity and brainless acts of violence is what stops them in their tracks" Darst was sure that any assault the Brutes would launch will fail if the limb-ripping savages make too many mistakes.

"Ever seen a Scarab walker Darst?" Thel asked him. Darst suddenly shut his trap.

"There is a good chance that the Brutes would have at least one Scarab with them, they always had, why not this force? If a Scarab shows up at the front gates, we're all doomed. We wouldn't have the firepower to combat it. Forget it Kino, I'm going to their encampment, and you can't stop me" Thel walked past Darst very easily. The crimson elite has only a Scarab once in his life, and the walker destroyed everything he saw.

"Thel...I don't want you to die" Cynder said as he walked passed her and stopped just behind her. He turned around to look at her. She also turned around to look at him in the eyes, emerald to orange.

"Cynder...it's for the best" Thel whispered but she could still hear him.

"That's it isn't it? All your life, you have been fighting and fighting and fighting. You have been on your planet for only a few years, then they decided to recruit you into the war. Now look, your war is over, you wanted to see your planet to know that it is alive and well, and then live a normal life. But instead of that, you choose to die so the rest of us could live...Arbiter, what if they believe you're not the only Elite that survived the crash. What if you died and still the Brutes attacked the city. You'd die for absolutely nothing, like something worthless" Cynder's words pounded his head. He was starting think that she was right, but he stands with his task.

"Look. Maybe you're right. Maybe they won't believe me, and they will still attack. But I have to try. I cannot stand fighting like this for the rest of my life. It's all I know" Thel lowered down to her level and held her by the left shoulder. Her tears started coming down again.

"But Arbiter, there is so much for you to live for" she doesn't want to give up. She wants him to stay here, but all Thel does is get up and walks away from her.

Arbiter was nearing the Banshee that Shin brought was able to bring after the forest ambush. He checked to see if the engines were working. The Banshee was still in working order. He opened the hatch to allow himself to enter the pilot seat. Thel sighed deeply. If Cynder was right, his sacrifice will be all for nothing. Suddenly, Darst was behind the Arbiter.

"Thel...you've seen what Brutes do to us...don't let them do the same to you" Darst warned the Arbiter. Thel turned away from Darst to sigh again. He noticed Cynder laying on the ground trying to cover her watery eyes. Spyro was right behind her, staring at Thel.

"You're making a big mistake...and it's something that you might regret" Spyro whispered, but Thel heard every word.

He shook his head and climbed into the Banshee. That hatch closed, concealing Thel inside the craft. Dust blown in all direction as the Banshee started to lift off the ground and hover. Cynder looked up to see her friend leave at that instant moment when the Banshee when into flight mode and sped out of the city, heading to the Brute encampment. Darst, Spyro and Cynder all watch him disappear without a trace. Darst slowly shook his head. What would happen to Arbiter? what were the Brutes planning? In all honesty, Darst didn't want to find out. He slowly walked past Cynder, who stopped her tears as soon as Thel left the city.

"If you guys want me...I'll be fixing the Library" Darst went back to continue refixing the Library, even though he wasn't even asked to. When the Elite disappeared around a corner, Cynder looked into Spyro's eyes. She just lost her friend, now...she doesn't know what to do.

"Cynder...are you ok?" Spyro gently placed a wing around her to comfort the dragoness in her time need. She then suddenly hugs around Spyro, her wings folded around the purple dragon and each other's heads gently made contact. Spyro got the small shock of having a dragoness cuddle around him, but right now, Cynder's heart has been broken. She needed some attention. He slowly got his other wing to gently cuddle with her, as she sobbed into his neck.

"It's alright Cynder. I'm here" Spyro held her tightly, but still gently enough for her. Then, he heard a whisper from her mouth. Something drastic she thought up.

"I'm going after him Spyro...I'm not losing anyone else, anymore" she silently whispered next him.

"I'm coming with you" he whispered back to her.

As night started to descend upon the lands, the Banshee rockets over the landscape, surprising many different creatures on the meadows, forests and other types of landscape. He descends a little lower over a lake to kick up water from behind the Banshee, causing a Banshee made tidal wave on both sides. He then ascends higher to try and spot anything large. It was a hard time spotting anything in this darkness. This whole planet was, to him, actually very beautiful. Unlike the Human Earth where it's literally citied all around the globe, this Earth was the natural side of the Human's Earth. So many creatures, large and small, live on this planet. It was a very good thing the Covenant or UNSC didn't decide to try and take this Planet for themselves. Suddenly, Arbiter started to get impatient looking for this Brute encampment. It was almost night and still no Cruiser.

"Where is it? where is the bloody Cruiser? that Grunt had better not been lying" he had better hope the Grunt is right, otherwise this would be a waste of time. Suddenly, a large object came into view. As the Banshee closed in, it was the one thing Thel was hoping to find. The Brute Cruiser was in his sight. A sense of fear overcame Thel though. He has never seen another Brute ever since the time at the cave. This Cruiser was quite massive compared to a Banshee. In fact, it made Thel look like an ant. He then looked below the Cruiser. It was just as he thought. The entire encampment was an entire base. Many vehicles ranging from Choppers, Ghosts, Wraiths and even the Brutes one and only dreaded Scarab. To make matters worse, it was a large army of Jiralhanae below it.

On the ground, the Brutes were working on their vehicles and still working on their base. Most of them were doing tribal sermons like they did on their home planet and in the Covenant. One of them, a captain ranked Brute in yellow armour, saw Thel's Banshee coming.

"Hey, what number is that Banshee?" the captain asked a stalker ranked Brute. They looked harder as the Banshee closed in.

"That's...that's the Banshee that went missing a couple of days ago!" the stalker pointed at the craft. The captain then thought for a moment, then suddenly got excited and pleased.

"It's the Arbiter! Get the chieftain here now!" the captain shouted at the stalker, giving his orders and the stalker suddenly went to tell the chieftain and the rest of the base.

In the air, Thel slowed down the Banshee before making his final descent.

"There they all are. The dishonourable, worthless creatures...the same ones that killed Rtas and everyone else. I hope this won't take long" Thel wanted this to be over and done quickly. He saw tons of Brutes gathering with spikers, gravity hammers and other weapons in their hairy hands. Thel made a slow descent into the huge packs of Jiralhanae.

It wasn't long until the Brutes saw the Banshee that has been lost for a decent couple of days, right in front of their eyes. They all roared and growled at this arrival, knowing who it might just be. When the Banshee dropped to the ground, the hatch opened at the back. All the Brutes went silent as they awaited to see who comes out of the Banshee. Arbiter then came out of the shadow's of the Banshee, and suddenly, hundreds of Brute eyes were staring at him. To Thel's surprise, they weren't trying to kill him right then, so this is a good start.

"Brutes...big and...bigger...I'm guessing you have all been waiting for this moment haven't you all?" Arbiter's sense of fear and dread came over him.

There was no question that these Brutes have been waiting for this. The time when they finally kill the Elite that has caused them so much trouble, was standing right in front of them. Thel looked at the buildings and vehicles that were around and even over there was Brutes either standing on the roofs or sitting on top of Wraiths. It was overwhelming to see this many enemies string right at you, ready to kill you at any moment. Suddenly, a large stomping sound was heading towards the Arbiter. He saw a large Jiralhanae pushing other Brutes out of the way. As he got closer, it was revealed to be a chieftain. A really big chieftain. Arbiter stood there frozen as he slowly had to look up at the Brute chieftain. It was Magnaruckus, the leader of the entire Brute force encampment. The oversized chieftain inspected the looks of the Arbiter. Exposing his teeth here and there, he finished inspecting the Arbiter and looked right at the Elite, stare for hungry stare.

"Arbiter...you have been causing a lot of trouble for us all haven't you?" the chieftain chuckled very evil like. Thel gulped.

"What? You're not surprised I'm here chieftain?" Thel asked Magnaruckus. The chieftain didn't seem all too cocky, like other Brutes the Arbiter has encountered.

"No, no, no Arbiter, this is actually quite a surprise to us and a shock. I thought that we had to search all over the planet for you but, well...I guess you did it for us" Magnaruckus was intimidating Thel. The Arbiter suddenly came to realize that this chieftain was no ordinary chieftain. It was the same one that killed Cynder in his nightmare. The very same one. The long dark red cape, the armour, the helmet. The chieftain even had the Fist of Rukt, which brings Thel to another question.

"Where did you get that hammer?" Thel asked the chieftain. The beast only chuckled.

"You mean this? I found it on the second Halo...when you killed Tartarus" Magnaruckus exposed his teeth at the Arbiter. They looked strong enough to crush bone very easily. Thel was shocked of this turn of events. How did this chieftain acquire the hammer.

"How...how did you get it?" Thel demanded.

"I watched the whole thing Arbiter. You must have not noticed about cliff looking area above the whole platform. When you and the Humans left, I took the advantage of taking the weapon into my own hands that someday...I would crush you with it" Magnaruckus gripped the hammer tightly. There was no doubt that he knew how to use it.

"Who are you? You're bigger than any other Brute I've ever seen, almost as tall as a Hunter" Thel wanted to know the chieftains name. Who was this ugly bastard?

"Very well. You might as well know who I am before you die. My name is Chieftain Magnaruckus" he revealed his name to Thel. For some reason it, sounded a little too familiar.

"Wait, you're the Brute that was responsible for suggesting the plan to attack Harvest" Thel knew about the battle of Harvest. A massacre for both sides of the conflict it was.

"Yes. You weren't even Arbiter back then Thel Vadam" Magnaruckus knew Thel's name. These didn't really know each other, but they certainly have heard of each other. Thel got everything he needed to know about this Brute. It's probably time now.

"Alright. I'm here now. No one else survived the Shadow's crash. Only I did. So why don't you kill me, get this over with, and leave this peaceful planet alone" Arbiter begged the chieftain to kill him. Though Magnaruckus was already one step ahead of the Arbiter.

"Don't lie to me Thel, I know there are more Sangheili survivors. If there was no one else that survived, that means you would be dead too. But you're not, that means, others have survived" Thel knew he couldn't lie now.

"Alright, there are more. But I'm the one you're after, not anyone else. How about this. You kill me, the others go free?" Arbiter tried to make a deal with the chieftain, but it was futile.

"Sorry Thel, but all Sangheili must die" Magnaruckus struck a blow to Thel with bottom part of the hammer, knocking down Thel flat on his stomach. This put him in a position to die.

"You, take your hammer and kill him now!" Magnaruckus ordered a Brute captain with a hammer to kill Thel with.

The Brute did as he told and walked up to where the Elite was. The captain raised his hammer to fatally kill Thel with a final blow. Arbiter then reached into his back armour and pulled out his energy sword handle. As the Brute slammed down, Thel did a roll to avoid getting hit. He activated his energy sword, sliced the hammer in half, got up and impaled the Brute captain with the sword. The Brute's eyes went bloodshot as a reaction to the stab. Thel pushed the Brute back, pulling out his sword and the captain instantly dropped dead. Other Brutes roared furiously and ran at Thel with their hammers. Arbiter though, was fast enough to avoid the Brutes clumsy attacks. One Brute did a horizontal swing, but Thel ducked and did a horizontal attack himself, killing the Brute. Thel rolled around the Brute's falling body to grab another Brute's hammer to him swinging and impaled the blasted Jiralhanae, roaring in pain. Thel kicked the Brute he impaled to make it collide with another Brute, making the two fall over. Thel jumped over the two Brutes that are laying down and chopped the Brute's, that was still alive, head's off. Arbiter stopped and checked behind him to see 4 dead Brutes that failed (Quite epically I must say) to kill Thel. Their blood flowed all around the corpses. Another Brute then came at Thel with a hammer. He swinged at Thel and hit the Arbiter's right hand that was carrying the sword. The sword deactivated when it landed on the ground. His right hand was releasing a small amount of dark purple blood, but that wasn't enough to kill the Arbiter. Thel decided to use hand-to-hammer combat. He grabbed the beast's hammer and punched the Brute square in the face, causing the Brute to drop his hammer and cover his face where he felt the blow. Thel took this chance grab the hammer, hit the Brute in the back with it, causing the Jiralhanae fall first flat on his stomach. Thel decided to drop the hammer, walked next to the Brute, grabbed his neck and crack it, instantly killing the Brute. Thel backed up and turned around to see Brutes, armed with Brute shots ready to kill him where he stands.

"You will pay for the blood you have spilt Arbiter!" A Brute shouted in the pack. Arbiter stared death in the face. At that moment, it was all over for him. They all loaded their weapons, with a few cocking of their guns going off.

"Shin...Darst...Cynder...I'm sorry" Thel whispered and closed his eyes and waited for the inevitable.

Suddenly, just before they were about to fire, fireballs and shadowballs rained down on the Brute packs. Explosions between the Brutes were going off. Some were even sent flying. They all screamed and roared in pain. Magnaruckus, who was on top of a building watching the whole battle unfold, saw his Brutes suffer by unknown attacks. He looked up to see where these attacks came from. Spyro and Cynder descended and attack the Brutes from the sky. A shocking, surprising attack from the Dragons. Thel opened his eyes to see he wasn't dead, but the Brutes in front of him were either on fire or dark shadow's were making them suffer. Thel looked up to see the young dragon's rain death from the sky.

"Cynder? Spyro?" Thel was shocked of this turn of events and surprised that Cynder, even though this was suicidal, she still risked her life to save another. Speaking of the black dragoness, Cynder hovered in the air to shout out to Thel.

"Arbiter! Grab whatever you can and we'll all get out of here, me and Spyro will hold them off for as long as we can!" Cynder shouted out to him. She went back to raining down the shadow fire on the Brutes. Thel saw the energy sword handle he dropped before and grabbed it. He also saw a hammer laying on the ground. Arbiter even grabbed that and made a run for the Banshee.

The Brutes however were trying to shoot the dragons out of the sky with their spikers. Cynder and Spyro evaded the incoming spikes as best as they could. Cynder weaved through a number of spikes and breathed shadow fire on the brute, instantly making the Brute roar in pain from the dark fire. Spyro saw a group of Brutes grabbing some weapons from a small armoury. Next to it was a bunch of plasma battery containers. Spyro thought something big could happen if those were destroyed. He breathed a fireball, which was oncoming to the batteries. When the fire hit, a chain reaction of explosions was set off, destroying the armoury whole sale. Magnaruckus watched as the dragons were setting the whole place in chaos.

"What are those things?" Magnaruckus had no clue what Spyro and Cynder was. Thel though had made his way back to the Banshee. He put the melee weapons in the pilot's seat and jumped in himself. As soon as the hatch closed, he took off and went to the dragons. Cynder urns around to see Arbiter's Banshee in the air.

"Cynder! I'm ready, let's get out of here! The Brutes will only bring more reinforcements!" Arbiter shouted out to her. She turned her attention to Spyro, who was watching some of the Brutes burn.

"Spyro! We have to go, now!" Cynder called out to him. When he turned his attention to her, a Brute with a spiker fired at Spyro. 3 spikes impaled in his back, causing him to yell in pain.

"Spyro! No!" Cynder cried out and went to help him. Arbiter saw the Brute and shot it with the plasma cannons of the Banshee, instantly annihilating the Brute. Cynder tried to keep Spyro in the air, but he had to be carried. He had no choice but to hold on to Cynder's back on the return journey.

"Hold on tightly!" she told him. His blood was seeping out of him. Cynder and Arbiter were able to fly out of the base before the Brute reinforcements would come. Magnaruckus watched as they all escaped from his grasp.

Magnaruckus roar could be heard for miles. He roared because of his failure to kill Arbiter.

"Just wait Arbiter...I WILL KILL YOU!" he grinded his teeth.

**So, how was that? I hope you enjoyed, review and as always...have a nice day. A 78 out.**

**P.S: I made this chapter in one day, so I hope it wasn't rushed.**


	12. Aftermath of a massacre

The Arbiter, Cynder and Spyro were able to escape the Brute encampment. They flew as far as they could from the Cruiser as possible. The dark though, was only able to hinder progress. Arbiter could perfectly see through the dark thanks to the blue vision it uses, but Cynder could hardly see through the night and her wing muscles strained whilst carrying Spyro on her back. Although she started to get tired as they went further, she wanted to help Spyro as fast as possible, but Warfang was still somewhat too far away. Thel saw the condition Spyro was in and can see how desperate Cynder was to help him, but they had to set down now for the night. Spyro was barely awake because the pain he has taken almost caused him to enter an unconscious state.

"Cynder, you're wasting too much energy with Spyro on your back, his weight is slowing you down, you must rest" Arbiter tried to tell her. Her wing muscles then started to really hurt. Spyro's blood slowly dripped down to Cynder's sides, but she didn't care about that.

"But we have to get back to the city, Spyro needs medical attention. I can't risk losing him" Cynder objected to Arbiter's suggestion and continued.

"Look, I promise that he can live through the night with those wounds. It may look bad, but 3 spikes is not enough not kill him, trust me, if we set down for the night, I can help take out those spikes, like we did with you" Thel offered to help Spyro like he did with Cynder. She thought about it for a moment. She wants those spikes out of him now, yet, they were still far away. She had no choice.

"Alright, we'll set down. But just for this night" Cynder gave in and descended with the Banshee that Thel piloted. They landed in a dense forest, far from Warfang and far from the Brutes. Cynder was the first to set down, gently placing Spyro on the soft grass. He groaned a little bit in response to the spikes his back. Cynder wanted to comfort him with her wings, but she didn't was risk impaling them by the spikes. Instead, she laid down next to him very closely, to pass on her warmth to him.

"Cynder...are you ok?" Spyro whimpered softly.

"I'm fine Spyro, but you aren't. I'm lending some of my body heat so you can stay warm" she huddled very close to him. Although he was in pain, he was definitely enjoying the contact he was receiving. She nuzzled him lovingly on his cheeks, even licking him a little bit. That he really enjoyed.

"I love you Spyro. I just can't afford to lose you" she held her head against his. The moment was interrupted by the noise of the Banshee.

Arbiter landed the it slowly, as the grass swayed around the craft. When it deactivated, Arbiter exited the craft quickly and went to Spyro's aid. He got on his knees to inspect the damage. Although the blood seeped out quite quickly, the spikes weren't able to penetrate his skin any much deeper than what Cynder had to go through. Cynder moved her head away from Spyro to see his wounds. Her heart sank as she saw the spikes in him. She didn't want to see Spyro in this much pain, but this was almost no different than what happened to her during the fire.

"The spikes didn't penetrate very deep, that's a good sign. It shouldn't take long to take these out of him" Thel was planning to take them out like he did before but Cynder was concerned about this.

"But if they're taken out, his blood will only come out faster, and we don't have any bandages or red crystals, he could probably die from blood loss or worse" Cynder was worried that something fatal could happen.

"Trust me Cynder, I promise he won't die. These spikes are only causing more pain, if they aren't taken out as quickly as possible, the wounds won't heal. He'll live Cynder, but you have to trust me. I have to take these spikes out" Arbiter promised the young black dragoness. Cynder looked at Spyro.

"It's ok Cyn, let him do what needs to be done" Spyro was allowing Arbiter to do this, but Cynder was extremely worried about this.

"But Spyro-" Cynder was cut off from more of the purple dragons words.

"I'll be fine. I've been through worse than this and you know that. It has to be done. You've been through this and you were just fine, and I'll get through it as well" Spyro assured her it's all going to be fine. She stared into his eyes, knowing that he's right.

"(Sigh) All right. It's up you." she gave in whilst laying down next to him again. Spyro smiled, knowing that she's setting aside her worries.

"Ok" Thel said grabbing a spike that has impaled Spyro between the wings "Are you ready?" he asked the purple dragon.

"Yea. Go for it" Spyro gave Thel his permission. Unlike last time, Spyro has nothing to bite on down. Cynder was able to use Spyro's tail before, but he didn't want to bite down on Cynder's tail. Instead, all she could do is hold on to one his paws and rest her head against his.

Thel then started to pull the spike out with ease. Spyro tried to resist the intense pain, by resisting the urge to yell in pain as Cynder's head was stopping him from doing it, but Cynder could feel him trembling from the pain. Thel then pulled the sharp object that is covered in Spyro's blood. slowly dripping, Thel put down the spike to continue with another that went somewhat below where the first was pulled out. Thel wanted this one done much quicker than before and these ones were quite easy. The Arbiter pulled the second one out with a breeze but Spyro shuddered, feeling the object come out of his body. Cynder lightly licked him on the cheek again to show him that he's doing an amazing job trying not to yell, but also showing her love towards him. Thel went to the final one which was situated just above the base of his tail. This one didn't go very deep but it was still quite close to probably impaling his inner organs. Thel carefully pulled this one out and Spyro was very close to shouting out in pain. If he does, it might attract unwanted attention, namely any Brute craft. Thel was close to pulling the spike out but Spyro was also close to shouting and Cynder knew that was about to happen. She had to think quickly. She came up with one idea, but would Spyro like it? At that moment, when Thel pulled out the spike and Spyro was about to shout, Cynder went up to him and kissed him lip for lip. Spyro got a sudden shock as his eyes widened. Not only Cynder stopped him from shouting, but she also did something that he's been waiting for ever since he fell in love with her. To Cynder, it was, drastically, a surprise, but it also helped the situation at hand. Her eyes were closed during that moment and Spyro went from feeling intense pain to a soft, calm and excited state.

"That was the last one. You did a great job trying not to-" Thel stopped dead in his sentence when he saw the young dragon couple kissing. He turned around to give them a little privacy, dropping the blood covered spike at the same time.

"Awkward" he whispered.

When the two broke up the kiss, Cynder suddenly felt embarrassed that she actually did that. Her face was blushing all over. Spyro only stared at her in surprise, shock, embarrassment, you name it (basically, everything a guy gets when a chick kisses him...yea, on with the story). Cynder was looking down at the ground, as if she was trying to make it look like it never happened. She couldn't believe she done that. Nuzzling and licks to the cheeks were fine to her but something overcame her to make the dragoness do that.

"Ahem...can I turn around now?" Thel asked the dragons. Spyro and Cynder turned to him and then felt really embarrassed. They did it in front of Arbiter. Real awkward. Suddenly, pain started coming back to Spyro quite quickly. His wounds were gapped, leaving blood to easily slip out.

"Ye...yes Thel, you can turn around" Cynder gave him permission to turn back around and Thel did. She was looking at the ground, still feeling embarrassed. Thel's expression went from a shocked one, to a grin. He then looked at Spyro who was trying to stand up, but the wounds were stopping him. Thel went to make Spyro lay back down.

"It's probably best that you stay put until tomorrow Spyro, those spikes did some nasty damage" he suggested to the young dragon. Spyro nodded slowly and laid back. Cynder looked back up to hear what Thel was about to say.

"Cynder, Spyro...I'm so grateful for what you've done tonight. You saved me from making the biggest mistake in my life" Thel owed his life to the two dragons. They saved him from certain death.

"Well Thel, it goes to show that you have friends that really care about you. You're very welcome as well" Cynder liked the appreciation she received from Thel, but she also wanted to know how was Thel's experience with the Brutes. Who was their leader, how big is their force, what assets did they have and a lot more that she wanted answered. Arbiter was able to grab a few pieces of wood together and got Spyro to make the fire using his element. They gathered around to sit down and rest.

"Arbiter, do you know who their leader was?" she asked in the most politest of manners.

"I do. He's a large Brute chieftain that goes by the name Magnaruckus. He's the biggest Brute I've ever seen in my entire life. I...I cannot explain the size of him, he's a little bigger than a Hunter and he wields the same weapon Tartarus did. I'm surprised he didn't use the hammer's range abilities on me" Thel actually feared this chieftain. Normally he wouldn't fear Brutes that go from minor class to the chieftain, but Magnaruckus was different. Somewhere in his mind, Magnaruckus was no ordinary Brute chieftain.

"I see. So he's a huge threat towards us then?" Cynder was also starting to worry about this chieftain. If Arbiter feared this beast, should she fear it too?

"Indeed. He must be stopped. Capture is not an option, the Brute must die" Thel wanted this chieftain dead, no matter how long it will take the Elite to kill him. Cynder wanted to know absolutely everything that Thel saw.

"Ok. Arbiter, I need to know everything else about what you encountered at that horrible place, how big their army was, what assets they have that needs to be stopped, everything" she asked him whilst laying down back next to Spyro, who was trying to through the pain. Dragons can heal up quite quickly, even without the assistance of red crystals or bandages, but it will sting for quite some time. Cynder try to comfort him as much as she could, even resting a wing on his back to keep him warm but also put some pressure of the wounds. Whilst she did this, she listened to Arbiter's every word.

"The entire encampment was huge, I think at least over 700 Brutes resided there. I also saw a couple groups of Hunters, not many of them, but they are still a grave threat. The Cruiser hardly sustained damage from the looks of it when both my ship and that Cruiser battled. That ship is the biggest threat to the city, Cynder. We cannot allow it to hover over Warfang or the Cleansing beam that the ship has will destroy the entire city. The biggest ground threat is the Scarab they have. If you overheard me and Darst back in the city before I left, I asked him if he's ever seen a Scarab. Darst feared it because during one of the battles against the Brutes in the war, one of their Scarab's were able to destroy an entire Wraith battle group that we had. That day was a massacre, and I bet my honour that Darst was there during that battle. A Scarab will decimate and kill countless people if that thing tries to access the city. I also saw some Wraiths. They could be used as long range artillery since the walls are blocking their way to get troops into the place. Banshees are something we have to look out for, they will massacre everything in sight. It's imperative that those craft are destroyed immediately. Ghosts and Choppers are on the have to be destroyed list as well, their infantry killers. That's basically everything Cyn, everything else can be dealt with some difficulty" Thel discussed about the threat towards the Elites and the city. Cynder and Spyro listened to every word he said. The situation looks really grim.

"Brutes...the Cruiser...the Scarab...I don't know if we could...do you think..." Cynder was stuttering with fear because she couldn't believe what those beasts had. The Scarab and the Cruiser had the ability to destroy the entire city with ease. Now that she knows this, she immediately starts to lose hope. Spyro could see it in her eyes. He knows that she was scared.

"Thel...I don't know if we can take on those things...They have stronger forces compared to ours. They have a giant walking menace and that Cruiser is basically the size of the city and if it does fly over they city...we're all doomed" Cynder laid her head down on the soft grass, thinking about what could happen to everyone. Arbiter could sense that she was scared and she has a right to be scared. The Brutes had everything they needed to destroy the city. But no matter the cost, they have to fight the Jiralhanae to defend the city and their lives.

"I know how you feel Cynder, but you said it yourself back in the city. We have to stop them, no matter the cost. The Brutes hardly no tactics, they don't even have strategy on their side and that can be a valuable asset. If we can fight hard enough with honour, hope, distinction and pride, we might come out victorious" Thel was trying to increase the moral for the young dragons but Spyro knew Thel was speaking the truth.

"He's right. We have to at least try to stop them. If we can make it through this, we can all continue our normal lives. It would just be one more battle. After that, if we survive, no more will we have to fight. I'm also sure by that time Thel and the other Elites can find a way to get home themselves" Spyro tried to tell her. She looked into his eyes. Her heart lifted as she listened to his words carefully.

"But I need to know if your with me for this battle. I can't fight without you during these times Cynder. We look out for each other, and remember this. I'm always there for you" Spyro wanted to be so close to the black dragoness. Cynder couldn't be any more happier.

"Spyro...I'm with you" Cynder got her hope back and rested her head under Spyro's chin. Spyro sighed as a reaction from the contact he received. Thel couldn't help but expose a smiling expression. He heard a strange noise from up high though. He looked up to see a Brute Phantom up high. The dropship was going somewhere. Thel growled a tiny bit as he watched the beasts fly by. Spyro and Cynder didn't see it, they were too distracted in their basket of comfort.

Meanwhile, at the city of Warfang, the whole city has been relatively quiet ever since Thel, Cynder and Spyro left. Darst was trying to finish up repairing the Library, as he's expected to. Shin has been keeping an eye out for the Grunts but also anxiously waiting for Thel to return. Fire posts lit up the paths and streets as the blue armoured Elite walked alone in the cold. Every now and then, he would see Darst still helping the moles to try and gain their respect, even though the zealot didn't really want to. The Grunts were just casually walking around as well, minding their own business.

"Alright, I spy, with my Grunty eye, something beginning with M" Yapflop was playing a game with Jabjab, but the green Grunt wasn't interested in playing.

"Grr, the same answer as last time, Mole, stop bothering me" Jabjab yelled at Yapflop.

"Well I'm bored so get use to it" Yapflop crossed his arms.

"Well this sucks, I'm going north" Jabjab turned around started to the north part of the city. Yapflop then heard a stranger engine noise.

"Hey, do you hear that?" Yapflop asked his friend.

"Hear what?" Jabjab was sick of Yapflop's nonsense but then he also heard an engine noise. Shin wasn't too far from the Grunts whereabouts and he can also hear the noise. As it got louder, some Moles and even Darst could hear it. He jumped down and scanned the sky.

"What is that?" he asked himself.

Shin looked all over the place for that engine sound. Suddenly, in front of his eyes, quite high in the sky, a Phantom dropship hangs over the city. They have found the place.

"Oh no" Shin said to himself.

"Oh look, its Arbiter, he brought back a Phantom...where is the Banshee?" Yapflop asked Jabjab.

"Screw that, where is the black and purple lizards?" Jabjab thought it would be weird to see Arbiter in a dropship but not with Spyro or Cynder.

Darst growled as he knew who it was.

"I've to get my weapons!" the zealot ran off to the armoury.

The dropship closed in to the ground. It lowered and lowered right in front of the Grunts.

"Uh...this could be bad" Jabjab said. The dropship then opened its side doors to allow its passengers to jump off. But it wasn't Brutes that Jabjab, Shin or Darst was expecting. 2 Hunters jumped off the dropship and landed hard right in front of the Grunts. Dust was sent up when the armoured creatures landed. When it cleared, Jabjab and Yapflop were knocked off their feet when the Hunters landed. Jabjab sat up and saw the Hunters raising their shield and hand cannon.

"Oh brother" Jabjab sighed.

**This one had to be carefully done. Thanks for all the reviews everyone, I'm glad you're liking so (because this is my first fic, so, I was nervous at first) I hope you enjoyed, again, thanks for the reviews and as always, have a nice day.**


	13. Hunters of trouble

Along one of the streets in the city, not far from where the Phantom deployed the Hunter's, Darst was running to the dropship's location with an energy sword and a spiker in his hands and a spike grenade, meaning he's been to the armoury and is now prepared to fight anything that's been deployed by the Jiralhanae. Suddenly, Yapflop was sent high into the air, grabbing Darst's attention. Yapflop screamed at the top of his lungs as he crashed into a stone building. It looked like he was stuck in the there. He was facing against the wall with his methane pack sticking out.

"Hm, nothing usual" Darst whispered with a hint of sarcasm. He walked over to Yapflop and grabbed his pack, pulling the Grunt out of the building, leaving a Grunt shaped hole there.

"Ow! Why does stupid things always happen to me?" Yapflop brushed off all the dust that was on him and turned to the zealot.

"(In Darst's mind: Why doesn't he die)...what happened to you Grunt?" Darst asked the little Unggoy.

"Obviously, you didn't see me fly high in the air make that hole right there didn't you?" Yapflop unhappily replied, Darst did see the Grunt get sent up high, but that wasn't the answer he wanted.

"I meant who sent you flying? was it a Brute? A chieftain? Shin...(I hope)" Darst grinned at that thought. Yapflop then pointed at the direction where the Hunters are.

"No, two Hunters came from the dropship and hit me with their shields. It's not Brutes that came from the Phantom.

"Hunters? Well they must have been sent by the disloyal beasts. Grunt, let's go" Darst ran past Yapflop but the orange Grunt didn't follow, causing Darst turn to him.

"Why are you standing there? Move it!" Darst ordered Yapflop but the little Grunt stood his ground.

"Not until you do that thing that you Elites do" Yapflop demanded from Darst. What thing was he talking about. Darst knew exactly what Yapflop meant.

"Ung...is this really the time?" Darst face palmed himself.

"If you want help" Yapflop held a plasma grenade in his right hand. Darst sighed.

"Fine...wort wort wort!" Darst spoke in his language, making the Grunt laugh.

"Oh, that never gets old, all right, let's go" Yapflop was happy enough to get moving and Darst sighed in embarrassment.

"I hate our language" Darst whispered at followed the Grunt to the Hunters.

Speaking of Hunters, one of them was chasing Jabjab by trying to hit the Grunt with its shield and use its fuel rod cannon, causing the Grunt to run in panic.

"LEAVE...ME...ALONE!" Jabjab screamed. He waddled side to side as he tried to run away from the much superior Hunter. Shin watched as Jabjab was chased by the monster. He waited for the moment to jump onto the Hunter's back.

"Now!" Shin ran up behind the giant creature and jumped up to grabbed it by the head, giving Jabjab time to esacpe whilst Shin tried to hang on to the struggling Hunter.

"Thank you Elite!" Jabjab ran as far as he can, as it seemed as he was off somewhere.

Shin held on very tightly as the Hunter tried to get the Elite off him. The hunter finally got the chance used its pinchers on the cannon, grabbing his back and tossing Shin over the huge Covenant shock trooper. Shin slammed hard into the ground, injuring himself in the process. This gave the Hunter the chance to kill Shin. The armoured beast pointed its cannon at Shin. He looked back to see the weapon pointing at him. Shin gulped at the sight of the weapon. Suddenly, a spear pierced the Hunter's flesh in the back, causing the armoured wormed monster to roar in pain, giving Shin the chance to flee. The Hunter turned around to see some moles that were ready to fight the Hunter.

"Good shot, I think that hurt it" the mole in front of the small group complemented on another mole's aiming with the spear. Suddenly, the Hunter fires the cannon at the moles. They ducked under the beam to avoid be killed.

"Well bugger me, war is dangerous" One of them said whilst getting up. The Hunter went to grab the spear that impaled him. Again, using its pinchers, the Hunter pulled out the spear, that is now covered in orange blood, and dropped it on the ground.

"This isn't good, run!" their group leader said and they all scattered to get away from the Hunter. The beast then decided to chase after them, leaving Shin to try and find a way to kill it.

Elsewhere, the other Hunter was destroying the buildings around it. Fires were burning is some structures while others were vaporized by the cannon. This Hunter was a little larger than its partner and had a bigger shield on its left arm. It also was a darker blue armour on it as well. It was bashing through some stone buildings to find any Elites hiding in cover. Some moles went to attack the wormed beast using some spears. The throws were inaccurate though, and they hit the armour, leaving only white scratches. The Hunter turned around and fired its cannon, making them jump out of the way and causing them to run in panic. The beast continued to attack the structures. Its shield knocked down everything it smashed. Suddenly, a small rock hit the Hunter's head, turning its attention to whoever threw it.

"Hey, wormy! Remember me? I'm the Grunt you threw in the air!" Yapflop showed no fear towards the giant beast, but that could suddenly change. The dark blue armoured Hunter stomped its way slowly to the Grunt, and right there, the Grunt started to look scared. His Grunty eyes widened at the sight of the giant. It held its cannon at Yapflop.

"Um...can't we be friends?" Yapflop whimpered at the sight of the gun. A spike grenade was then thrown the left leg of the Hunter, exploding and impaling spikes into the armour and surprising the Hunter, turning his attention to Darst, who was standing on a roof of one of the burning buildings. The Hunter hissed at the sight of the zealot.

"Yay, Darst, my saviour!" Yapflop cheered until he felt a sharp pain in his right leg spotted a spike that impaled him right through the leg, letting light blue Unggoy blood to flow out. Yapflop turned his attention back to Darst.

"I hate you dude" Yapflop was unhappy that Darst injured him. He fell down face first, as if he was unconscious.

Both Darst and the Hunter ignored Yapflop's shenanigans. The zealot jumped off the building and landed perfectly unharmed. He then activated his energy sword in the right hand and held his spiker in his other. Both former Covenant warriors circled around their area, where fires burnt the buildings and structures come crashing down. The rain also came as a sudden surprise at the Hunter and Darst just stared at each other, ready to see who strikes first.

"Why? Why do you beasts still fight for the Jiralhanae? The war is over, yet you still fight for them?" Darst questioned the Hunter. Its only response was mild growl.

It held its cannon at striking range with its shield covering almost every part of the Hunter. Darst then held up both of his weapons to point them at the Hunter. The wormed beast started charging its cannon. Darst saw this coming and prepared to evade. The beam fired and Darst narrowly rolled out of the way. Getting on his feet, he charged at the Hunter and jumped high over it and whilst in mid-air, he was able to get his body mass to become upside down in the air whilst he was over the Hunter's head. He aimed the spiker at the Lekgolo's head to see if the spikes can penetrate through the head armour. They were fired but they were completely deflected by the resistance of the metal, hardly even harming the Hunter. Darst landed behind it and attempted to strike at the worms on its back with the energy sword, but the Hunter quickly turned around and stopped the strike with its shield. Darst assaulted its shield by trying to break through it, but the shield itself was too strong. The Hunter pushed Darst back and then punched the zealot with its cannon. Darst was knocked back and suddenly fell on his feet, causing him to lose his weapons. The zealot tried to get up but the Hunter walked menacingly over to Darst. The zealot tried scurrying to a nearby building that has been damaged, but not as much like the others. The Hunter started bashing through the zealot's cover. Darst was then trapped, unable to escape. When the Hunter finally was able to reach Darst, he grabbed the Elite by his chest, using the pinchers, and threw him out of the building. He crashed and slid hard against the ground. His armour has been scratched pretty badly and his armour colour started to lose its shine and become a dull crimson colour. With bad timing, the Phantom that dropped off the Hunters started hovering over the fight. Darst was coughing up dust and slowly tried to get up once. He looked up to see the Hunter striking him with its shield. He was bowled over and started to bleed a little bit around his mandibles. The Elite was getting tired and exhausted, starting to lose his energy for fighting this massive Hunter. He turned around to see its cannon once again pointing at him. The Brutes aboard the Phantom was laughing victoriously, watching the Hunter prepare to kill Darst. The Elite, once again, got up and faced his foe. The Hunter stared into the eyes of the zealot.

"Kill him you stupid idiot, the chieftain expects us all back soon" a Brute captain shouted at the Hunter.

"Hurry up and kill the Elite, or you will be punished" a minor also shouted. It seems that, like the Grunts, the Hunters were also treated like crap. The 4 Brutes were shouting at the Hunter and telling it to kill Darst.

"Well, you heard the bloody beasts" Darst urged the Hunter to kill him. The then did sudden small movement with its cannon, telling Darst to look at it. When he did, he then saw small markings of the Sangheili separatists, which every Hunter, Grunt and Elite had when they fought the Brutes. Darst was shocked that the Hunter had these markings, which meant only one thing. The Hunter turned its attention, and cannon, at the Brute dropship.

"What the? WHAT ARE YOU DOING, DON'T POINT THAT THING AT US!" the Brute captain backed away from the ledge of the dropship. The Hunter fired its beam, hitting and damaging the Phantom with extreme force. It wasn't going down, but the dropship was severely damaged. The green beam almost took down the Phantom, causing the Brutes to make a hasty retreat.

"THOSE HUNTERS HAVE BETRAYED US! JUST LIKE THOSE GRUNTS! GET US OUT OF HERE, NOW!" the captain ordered the Brute pilot. The other Hunter, who had Jabjab cornered also saw the Phantom, and seeing that its companion has sprung their trap, it also aimed at the sky and attacked the dropship. The beam was narrowly avoided though, as the Jiralhanae craft left the city with considerable damage.

"Huh?" Jabjab was confused. Why were the Hunters attacking their Brute allies. Moles in cover also watched as the wormed colonies attack the fleeing dropship. Shin watched from just around the corner. His mind is beyond amazed.

"I can't believe it. They've turned their backs on the Brutes...but still the Hunters are going to be punished for the damage they've caused though..." Shin looked around his area to see multiple buildings either destroyed or burning.

"You Hunters will die for your betrayal! We will destroy all of you!" the Brute captain shouted out to the entire city so everyone could hear him. The dropship doors closed on the Brutes and they fled away from the city in defeat. The Hunters proceeded to lower their weapons down and come out of their combat crouching position to stand tall. They were indeed much taller when standing straight up.

"What did I just see?" Shin was very confused about this situation. Not 2 minutes ago, the Hunters were attacking everything in sight and just now, they attack the Brute dropship? Darst was starting to think that this was all a plan for these specific Hunters to get to the Elites. With Hunters on their side, the defence for Warfang just got more powerful, yet, damage to the city was still created. Who knows what the guardians might think of this.

"If I'm correct, we now have some firepower to go against the Brutes...it's a miracle...yet, a miracle that almost caused by destruction" Darst slowly grunted as he crawled away from the Hunter near him. He rested against a sandstone structure that has not been touched by the Hunter's rampage. The zealot has been injured quite severely, with a few cuts and bruises on his neck, legs, around some parts of his arms and a long cut that slowly slipped out blood around his left pair of mandibles. Yapflop was also injured, sustaining a spike that impaled him right through his leg. This also trickled out Grunt blood quite quickly. Jabjab came to his friend's side to help him.

"Yapflop, dude, c'mon, don't out on me yet!" the green armoured Grunt went for the spike in his leg and pulled out, causing Yapflop to get up and scream in pain as an unexpected reaction.

"AGH! WHAT THE F**K WAS THAT FOR?" Yapflop cursed in Human language, who was covering his leg to stop it bleeding, but little to no effect was made.

"Uh...didn't you want that thing out?" Jabjab was confused, why was Yapflop moaning when Jabjab just helped him take out the spike.

"No...maybe you could have waited a little longer...it would have come out by itself, you know, like a splinter?" Yapflop just made up something random just to use it as an excuse, but Jabjab ain't buying it.

"Oh screw you then, go play your Brute buddies" Jabjab then started waddling over to Darst, who was still bleeding himself.

"Fine then I will..." Yapflop proceeded to the gates by waddling over to it, and from the looks of it, the spike that impaled him didn't really hurt his walking or standing status. He moved normally like always, as if the wound wasn't there. Suddenly Yapflop turned his back to the gates because he was only joking about going to the Brutes.

"Wait for me! I was only kidding!" Yapflop yelled out. Darst sighed as he watched the Grunts come over to him. He didn't want their help, let alone, he didn't even want them in this city.

"Hey, Elite, are you ok?" Jabjab asked the zealot, and also completely ignoring his wounds.

"Does it look like I'm in the best shape Grunt?" Darst was a little angry that the Grunt was not even paying a tiny bit of attention to these wounds.

"Yea, he's fine, c'mon Yap, let's see if those furballs with the spears and all that can fix your leg" Jabjab got Yapflop to follow him to any group of moles willing to help Yapflop, leaving Darst all by himself.

"Grr, little runts!" the zealot hit the wall behind him to release some anger that he recently got from the Unggoy leaving him. The large Hunter though, came over to Darst's spot. Somewhere in the Lekgolo's worm colony, it was apologising to Darst for attacking him. The Hunter had to any way's to make the attack look very real to the Brutes and not some shmuck of a plan that would let the Jiralhanae know it's all a set-up.

"I'm not going to forgive you for what you done to me...but at least you made the right decision turning against those vile, disloyal beasts" Darst spoke to the Hunter firmly with medium tone of voice. The Hunter could only reply with small growl, probably understanding what the zealot said. Darst and the Hunter turned to look down the street to see Shin with a few Moles and the smaller Hunter with them. Darst slowly got up to reunite with Shin. The moles were still partly scared of the Hunters, thanks to what they done, but luckily, no one was killed or injured...except Yapflop, Darst and Shin, and a few moles to go with that. They all looked up to see Volteer coming down, and his face was very crossed, furious to see how much damage was done to the city and the Hunters were not actually trying to kill anybody. He have the two Elites a very disappointed facial expression towards the Elites. Darst narrowed his eyes at the yellow guardian while Shin tried to look away.

"Darst...Shin...we have much to talk about" Volteer said with a low tone.

**Before I end this chapter, quick heads up. Personally, I want to once again thank everyone for the reviews but I have also noticed that I'm only getting a 1 or 2 reviews every chapter. As before, I don't force anyone to comment, but I put in quite a bit of time to put this stuff up, don't take it personally though because I enjoy reading this stuff myself. I would like any review I can take up, (except for the "this is crap" comments, if your here for that, GTFO) so almost anything would be nice. Also, I have made a prologue to one of my next stories (which I've been working on for 2 years, so ever before I created this account) called the Scrin Empire. It's just a small part of the plot and to get things started for it. It's going to be a huge crossover between many, many things. Ok, better stop wasting your time now, have a nice day (if it's raining for you then...shit, that must suck) and until next time.**


	14. Love and War, is it not?

Back in the lush green forest that roamed across the darkness of the night, the small fire was still burning strong to produce light for Arbiter, Spyro and Cynder, who recently escaped from the Brutes encampment. Whilst Thel and Spyro had small chats with each other, talking about their races history and all sorts, Cynder was a few metres away from them, keeping an eye out for the unexpected. She was bored out of her mind, but Spyro had his turn just a few minutes ago, so now it's the black dragoness's turn. If Spyro could wait it out, she could too.

Looking up to the night sky, she was fascinated by the large number of starts she could see, all glittering in their glorious little shine. They reflected off Cynder's emerald eyes, causing her eyes to glitter a little bit as well. She kinda ignored what the silver armoured elite and the purple dragon were talking about. Instead, she was more interested going through the events that has happened the past few hours, mostly thinking about the rescue for Thel and when she did the unexpected to Spyro.

"(Cynder's thoughts) It was risky getting Thel out of that horrible place. He was the one willing to sacrifice himself for everyone, but he doesn't deserve to die like that. He's been through a lot, as well as the rest of us. He deserves to live a full life and not die like some worthless animal. I did feel good though, after we saved him. Saving another creature's life from the more demented force, because the Brutes are clouded by the visions of vengeance and savagery, so Thel says...I'm just glad we got him out of there with our heads on our bodies" Cynder sighed as her body laid on the cold, yet soothing grass. The breeze of the night did bring a little bit of the chill though, and Cynder started to shiver a bit. She then continued to go through her thoughts.

"I do feel sorry for what happened to Spyro though. When I grabbed his attention, one of those hairy beasts was able to injure him. If I hadn't done that, he would be perfectly fine and we would've been able to escape unharmed...but Thel did say he's going to be ok and I trust him with that. Besides, Spyro looks like he's getting better already" she looked back at the duo. She kept her eyes perfectly gazed on the one she loves, which brings her to another thought.

"I still can't believe what I did back there, when Thel pulled that last sharp object out of Spyro...what overcame me to do that? do I...want to get into a more serious relationship? Not just this nuzzling and licking stuff...something a little more...exciting. I wonder what Spyro thought? did he like it or isn't he ready to become so close?...I have to admit though, I personally enjoyed it. A lot" Cynder put a little grin on her face.

She then heard footsteps behind her. She then turned to see Thel coming to see her. It confused her though, it wasn't the Arbiter's turn to take over watch duty. Cynder has only been on the lookout for at least 12 minutes, when every change over is once every hour. Thel looked like he was in a happy mood though for some reason.

"How come your here, I only started a few minutes ago" Cynder asked politely.

"I decided that since you two saved my life, I will be on duty until dawn. You can get some sleep while that's happening as well" Thel had a smiling expression. He didn't seem to mind being out all night keeping an eye out for danger.

"But Arbiter, you need to rest yourself, you've been through a few traumatizing experiences today, like your nightmare you told me about this morning and when Sparx made you go to the Brutes place, not to mention you were almost killed there" Cynder was concerned for Thel's need of sleep, as he seems to be lacking it.

"Cyn, that nightmare is one reason why I don't want to go to sleep tonight. The other reason is that you have done much for me while I have been trying to take care of some of my own problems. You have helped me and the other elites find safety in your city walls, you saved my life with Spyro by your side, you got me to resist remembering those images of that nightmare, you deserve to spend some time with Spyro" Thel recapped the events during his time on the planet.

"And you saved both me and Spyro from that Brute in the meadow's by that cave when we had no clue what it was, you stopped Darst's insanity and saved most of us during the night of the fire, you were able to pull those spikes out of me when I was...shot by that spiker thing, and you did the same with Spyro not a couple of hours ago. C'mon Thel, you know you need rest, I can see it in your eyes. You look very tired" Cynder recapped more events that involved Thel helping them. Thel sighed, but he wasn't ready to give up. He was going to use one of her weak points and he grinned at this idea.

"I guess you're right. But, I'm very sure that you want to be close to Spyro...really close" Thel was remarking the moment when Cynder stopped Spyro from 'shouting'. Her eyes suddenly widened. She actually did want to be with him all night tonight and also try to find out if Spyro wants to be in a more serious relationship.

"N-no...I-I'm fine by myself thanks" Cynder lied and Thel knew it.

"Are you sure?" Arbiter asked her.

"Yes...I'm sure" she wanted to stay with her answer but curiosity and desperation to be with Spyro was going against it.

"Are you very sure?" Thel repeated his question again, but this time more it was more intimidating. Cynder then finally gave up, sighing in defeat. She got up and walked towards the camp fire.

"When we get back to Warfang in the morning, you are getting some sleep" she warned Thel, continuing walking towards Spyro.

"Yes Mum" Thel said with enormous sarcasm whilst sitting to take over watch duty. Cynder looked back at him with a brow raised up.

"And don't call me that" she asked him, a little annoyed to be called that by creature from another world.

"You will soon have to be called that when you're older" Thel was talking about Cynder's near future. She then felt strange in the stomach area upon hearing that sentence, but continuing her approach to the fire.

"Teenagers"

"Elites" both of them said at the exact same time in their minds.

As Arbiter looked out for danger in the darkness all by himself, Cynder slowly approached Spyro from the opposite end of the fire. When Spyro drew his attention to Cynder, he then felt his heart beating a little faster, still remembering that moment a couple of hours ago.

"How come your back from your watch so quickly?" he asked her, confused why Cynder was back from her watch much quicker than expected.

"Thel decided he wants to stay on watch duty for the rest of the night, so I guess I'm sleeping with you now" Cynder answered back kindly towards Spyro, whilst walking around the fire to cuddle in with the purple dragon.

"I see. Come here then" Spyro invited her under the protection and comfort of his wing.

She suddenly felt a lot warmer thanks to Spyro's body heat, glad to be out of the cold. This was suddenly Cynder's chance to ask him the question she is dying to know, but she needed the right moment. When Spyro had a slight shiver from the cold, she took this chance to lay her head against his neck. She breathed in and out slowly as Cynder relaxed against him. Spyro noticed this and suddenly felt a little warmer and then had affectionate feelings for the dragoness. He placed his head over her head to make Cynder feel a little more secure. She was getting very close to asking her desired question. As a final act, she slowly moved her head to lick his cheeks, making him blush a little, and nuzzled him oh so affectionately. In return, Spyro did the same to her. She seemed to enjoy it a lot more though. This was then her chance to ask him.

"Spyro?" she whispered his name.

"Yes?" he whispered back to her, making sure the Arbiter did not hear them. She exhaled in and finally asked the question.

"Do you want us to be in a more...serious relationship?" she asked him with a kind but affectionate tone of voice. Spyro was confused.

"What do you mean by a more serious relationship?" he asked her kindly, but Cynder's reply a lip to lip kiss. Spyro was once again shocked and embarrassed from this act made by Cynder. Suddenly, he knew what she meant. When they pulled apart, Cynder continued her answer.

"That's what I meant. I thought I was going to lose you when that Brute hurt you. I don't want you leave me alone after all we been through. What I also mean by a more serious relationship is that I want to be with you for the rest of my life" Cynder cuddled into his neck again. This gave Spyro time to think. Spending the rest of his life with the dragoness he loves...an offer no male dragon would decline.

"Of course Cynder. We can have a more serious relationship if that's what you want" Spyro nuzzled her once again, accepting to spend his life with Cynder. She was happy and relieved of Spyro's answer. She couldn't be any more joyful.

"But one thing...can we wait a few more years until we can...you know?" Spyro was especially concerned about one thing about this whole thing.

"What? wait a few more years for what?" she was then confused.

"A few more years to...(clears throat)...mate?" Spyro was worried about this one specific topic. Cynder suddenly opened widened her eyes as a reaction to this question.

"Oh...Oh! Yeah, yeah, of course, I mean, we're still a bit under aged of course...yeah we can wait a few more years" Cynder stuttered a little with her answer, to Spyro's relief as well.

"That's good...I'm not ready to care for hatchlings yet" Spyro's heart was beating a little bit as the question made him a little concerned. Cynder then placed her head back against Spyro's neck again.

"Just...make sure you can resist it by then" Cynder warned him as Spyro's male hormones and urges sometimes will try and take over him.

"Yeah. That's going to be a little tough" Spyro was scared that someday, he will not be able to resist no more until then.

"Still...you'd make a good father one day" Cynder looked at her male's eyes. Spyro smiled at her as a response. Suddenly, another voice was then heard.

"I'm not deaf you know, I can hear absolutely everything that's going on back there...by the way, congratulations, have a great life together" Arbiter teased them. Spyro and Cynder sighed as a reply.

"Thanks Thel..." Cynder said with sarcasm. Spyro yawned as he started to get really tired.

"I think It's time we got some sleep" Spyro suggested to Cynder. She replied by also yawning.

"Yeah, maybe it is...goodnight Spyro" Cynder laid her head down on the grass.

"Goodnight Cynder...pleasant dreams" Spyro said whilst giving her a her a small kiss to the forehead and laying his head down next hers.

They both drifted off into their deep slumber. Arbiter was looking back at them and turned back into his normal sitting position and said;

"Goodnight you two...I bid both your lives to be long and happy together" Arbiter rested his head against a tree, watching the entire night go by. Little did he know, the Phantom that was attacked by the Hunters back at Warfang flew high above the forest.

**I listened to "When you're gone" by Avril Lavigne whilst making this chapter and I found out that suddenly...(facepalm) I'm getting soft...Another small chapter this time. Read, review, fav or whatever. Have a nice day.**


	15. A Grublin surprise

As dawn approaches for the landscape, the Brute Cruiser hovers menacingly over the Jiralhanae encampment. The sun is mostly over shadowed by this giant warship. Whilst the sunlight eliminates most of the dark night, the encampment was still trying to recovers from its unexpected surprise attack from the dragons and clean up the bodies and blood Thel left in his wake. The Brutes growled and moaned by doing all this work. Magnaruckus, who was on top of a platform that rises above most of the place, watches his Brutes from this angle. He was more concentrated on how they were unable to kill the Arbiter and how didn't they annihilate those scrawny winged creatures. The chieftain still didn't know what they were, and how they were able to raze almost the entire encampment with such a small stature compared to him. He growls fiercely at these thoughts.

"Damned Arbiter...we were so close to vengeance, so close to destroying that blasted Sangheili. Then this happens, the entire encampment gets attacked by 2 scrawny reptiles with wings! It's almost unbelievable" the brute chieftain was beyond pissed off. Could things get any worse for the Brutes...they just did.

The Phantom that was damaged during its time at Warfang was in sight, returning with no success at all. The Brutes aboard were afraid that Magnaruckus will execute them for this failure, especially after 2 Hunters just turned against them, Arbiter was able to escape and Cynder and Spyro were able to do some serious damage to the whole place. In this situation, anyone is punished. Magnaruckus saw the smoke coming off the Phantom and things didn't look all that well. The massive Brute decided to see what happened to the dropship and came down the platform. As the Phantom landed and Magnaruckus saw that no Hunters came off the dropship, he exposed his teeth in anger. This meant only bad news. The captain ranked Jiralhanae was brave enough to confront the chieftain.

"Chieftain, we are sorry that we got back late. There was a few...complications" the captain apologized to his superior, but Magnaruckus was still itching to execute the Brute.

"What kind of complications were they? why is the Phantom so heavily damaged?" Magnaruckus slowly walked around the captain, aching for information that the yellow armoured Brute might have.

"Well...we found where a couple Elites are hiding. It's a large city stone city a bit far from here. One was a minor classed Sangheili, the other is highly trained zealot warrior. Those two little Grunts that we took down with a couple of Seraphs survived the attack, and now they're in that city now...we also saw some of these furry warriors that attacked the Hunters, but they seem just as weak as the Unggoy" the captain explained the experience, mentioning everything they encountered.

"Speaking of Hunters...where are the Lekgolo's I sent with you?" the chieftain stared into the eyes of the captain. The yellow armoured Jiralhanae was trembling at the sight of his boss, but nevertheless, he had to tell Magnaruckus.

"The Hunters...betrayed us. We were watching the bigger one kill the zealot but the-" the captain was cut off so suddenly by Magnaruckus, who knocked him down with the Fist of Rukt. The captain roared in pain, as he felt his spine break when he plummets to the ground. Magnaruckus grabs the captain's head, holding him by his neck.

"And let me finish your sentence...they attacked your Phantom with those damned cannons and as of right now, THEY HAVE ALLIED WITH THE SANGHEILI? IS THAT WHAT YOU'RE TELLING ME?" Magnaruckus shouted and snarled at the captain's failure, and fear entered the captain's heart.

"We didn't know this would happen, they just suddenly turned on us and attacked, it's not our fau-" in a horrifying act, Magnaruckus ripped the captains head clean off, stopping what he was saying. The body of the Brute twitched as a reaction to this but quickly stopped. The chieftain held the captains head up high, showing his dominance over the rest of the encampment. The Jiralhanae blood was escaping the body and the head. Magnaruckus roared very loudly, allowing everyone to hear him.

"YOU SEE THIS? THIS IS WHAT'S GOING TO HAPPEN TO YOU IF YOU FAIL! DO NOT MAKE THE SAME MISTAKE!" the Brutes were paralysed by the sight of another pack brother's head held high. He dropped the head on the ground and it rolled slowly towards back to the upper body.

"Where are the other two Hunters? Magnaruckus asked a Brute stalker.

"They're in the barracks...what's going on?" the stalker was confused why the chieftain asks this.

"Gather your pack brothers...they shall die for their betrayal" Magnaruckus smirked at this thought. The stalker was surprised about this demand. Killing the creatures that helped them so much in the war. But the Brute was loyal to Magnaruckus and do what has to be done.

In the barracks however, the last two Hunters in the encampment were unwary of this attack. They were sitting with their backs turned to their door, resting after the razing of the place. Unfortunately for them, they haven't noticed that the stalker with 3 other Brutes that are armed with hammers. The stalker nodded, giving the go for attacking the Hunters. The Brutes roared and smashed their hammers against the Hunters backs, instantly killing them. The orange blood flowed everywhere, even some landed on the Jiralhanae faces. Magnaruckus himself though was back on top of his lovely platform view, happy to hear the dying sounds of the Hunters nearby.

"Those other two Hunters knew what they wrought when they betrayed us. The rest of them will suffer too, along with the Grunts and the Elites...as well as our new foes" Magnaruckus was mentioning Spyro and Cynder.

As the encampment continues to attempt rebuilding itself, back in the forest however, the small group that escaped the encampment sleep peacefully as the sun slowly rises from the mountains. The camp fire burnt out, leaving burnt pieces of wood and ash. The light slowly shone upon Thel, who was actually asleep, as he was supposed to be watching out for Brutes the entire night, but apparently, sleep got the better of the Elite. Luckily for him, nothing bad happened. Even though the sunlight was upon him, he still wasn't awake. Cynder though, who had Spyro close to all night, was the first of the three to wake up. Her eyelids slowly opened up to see the warm sunlight upon her. She lifted her head and opened her mouth wide open to yawn, and also to see that Spyro was basically covering most of her body up, which explains why she had such an amazing sleep. The purple dragon still had his wing over her with his upper body warming her the entire night. This is one thing she expected in a 'serious' relationship. She smiled at him, loving how he sleeps so peacefully. Slowly breathing with the sound of his heartbeat going. It lets her know that he's still in her life, not gone forever. She loved the sound if Spyro's heartbeat against her body. She nuzzled him lightly on the cheeks to wake him up for the morning sun. He started slowly opening his own eyelids to see Cynder still nuzzling him, enjoying it so much. He smiled as a reaction. Cynder just suddenly noticed that he was awake. The purple dragon slowly lifted his to match her level, but to also yawn himself.

"Good morning Cyn" he spoke warmly towards her.

"Good morning Spyro. How'd you sleep?" she kindly asked him back.

"I was a little chilly, but other than that, I slept great, what about you?" he politely asked back

"Me?...well, I think you already should know that" she was relating to how Spyro was comforting her.

"Oh, I see" he just noticed that he was. The black dragoness slowly got out of under Spyro's wing to stretch her entire body out. Spyro also did the same. Cynder just noticed that Thel was asleep on the tree, a little annoyed that he was sleeping on the job, but she didn't blame after the events of what happened yesterday. She then came up with an idea that could potentially annoy the Arbiter, but she would have a laugh at the same time.

"Hey Spyro, watch this" Cynder grabbed the purple dragon's attention as he watched Cynder sneak up to the sleeping Elite. She stalked Thel like if he was her prey, which was one way to sneak up to him. Spyro had no clue what the dragoness was up to. She grinned as she got even closer to Thel. Cynder was now just a couple of feet away from the slumbering Sangheili. She breathed in to use one of her elements to wake up the Arbiter up. She let out a mild fear scream, not as loud as she usually does, otherwise, the effects of it could be dangerous to the Elite. Thel woke up immediately to the noise, got up and activated his energy sword then started swinging around like a mad man, falling over in the process.

"Ung...what in the name of Unggoy was that?" Thel asked himself, then looked over to Cynder, who was on her back, laughing her head off. Spyro also joined in with her. Thel released a 'bothered' expression. The Arbiter realised Cynder used one of her elements to wake him up. He was not in the mood for this.

"Very funny you two. That most definitely got me up, but you couldn't used a more, soothing sound?" Thel questioned the dragoness.

"Well where's the fun in that?" Cynder said getting back on her feet and smiling at Thel, "Besides, you were supposed to stay up all night keeping watch. I see that didn't work out for the might Arbiter?" she smirked. Thel groaned inside himself.

"Ok, I guess I did fall asleep on the job, stop criticising me" Arbiter pleaded.

"It's ok Thel, I don't blame you. I knew it was going to happen, and look, nothing bad happened" Cynder assured the Sangheili.

"Hmm...all right. I guess you got me good with that little trick of yours" Thel started grinning about Cynder's wakeup call

"I got you more than that Thel. But, maybe we should get going, the others will think something's bad happen to us" Cynder suggested.

"I agree. Spyro, how's your wounds?" Thel asked the purple dragon.

"They're healing up, I should be good to fly" Spyro assured the dragoness and Thel. Cynder was relieved to hear that. At least she doesn't have to carry him the whole way.

"Excellent, we'll leave as soon as you're ready then" Thel told them before going to the Banshee. Spyro and Cynder looked at each other. They were already good to get moving except Cynder had one request.

"Um, this might be a bad time, but tell Thel I'll be behind one of those trees, I need to...you know" Cynder had a strange look in her eyes, confusing Spyro.

"What do you mean?" he raised a brow. Cynder then held both her back legs in, telling Spyro that she needed to go to the toilet.

"Oh, yeah, go quickly" Spyro told her and she rushed behind a very thick tree to dispose of her 'waste'. Thel was checking to see if the Banshee was still working properly and checking for anything suspicious, so far he found none. Spyro was walking to Thel's side to let him know where Cynder is.

"Hey Thel, Cynder's just gone behind that tree for a minute, she'll be back" Spyro told Thel.

"Where is she?" the Arbiter asked turning around.

"She's-" Spyro was interrupted by Cynder's screaming. Both Thel and Spyro got a sudden shock and instantly knew Cynder was in trouble.

"CYNDER!" they both called and followed her scream.

Cynder was being cornered by 4 Grublins. This forest was their territory and they don't take kindly to strangers, let alone, dragons. The dragoness was ready to defend herself from this attack, even if being outnumbered 1 to 4. The Grublins were armed with clubs, ready to attack the dragoness. The one at the front growled at Cynder, supposedly being the group leader.

"Get away from me you little pipsqueaks!" she warned them, but they didn't back off, instead, continuing slowly towards her. Suddenly, Spyro came behind them and grabbed one with his jaws at the back of the neck. The Grublin screamed for its life, with its blood being spilt on the ground and on Spyro's teeth. The other green menaces turned around to see its comrade dying in front of their eyes. Their attention was at Spyro all of a sudden. Spyro dropped the dying Grublin on the ground to focus his attention on the others. Cynder was about to help Spyro until suddenly, a large figure was in front, but it was almost invisible. Suddenly, an energy sword activated, impaling the leader Grublin. It was suddenly being held in the air with the sword still in it. The last two turned again and watched in horror as the Arbiter decloak himself. Cynder never saw this kind of technique before, neither has Spyro, so this was very new to them. Thel threw off the Grublin that was impaled to aim the sword at the other two. They both went to jump on him. Arbiter was able to slice one in half, making the two body parts drop on the ground, but the other grabbed onto his neck and tried to strangle him, dropping the sword in the process.

"It's going to take more than that you green goblin!" Thel then grabbed the Grublin and threw him over to a tree, almost knocking it out. When it got up, Thel then took hold of him again and smashed it against the tree, hoping to kill it this way. The Grublin screamed as it was being hit against the hard wood. When it looked like it started to die, Thel then threw away the body with ease, trying to catch his after fighting the little beasts. Even though they were easy to kill, they still took some energy out of Thel. Spyro reunited with Cynder, hoping to see if she's alright.

"Cynder, are you hurt?" from the tone of his voice, he was quite worried about her.

"I'm ok, I'll be fine" Cynder assured him. Spyro licked her on the cheeks affectionately, to be relieved that Cynder wasn't hurt. Thel retrieved his dropped sword from when the Grublin was strangling him, but suddenly, more noises were heard through the darker parts of the forest. There were more coming.

"We have to get out of here" Cynder suggested.

"I concur. You two, take flight now and get the hell out of here" Thel demanded them to leave immediately.

"What about you? You're not going to fight them all are you?" Spyro questioned the Elite.

"I've got a Banshee around the corner, as soon as you get out of here, I'm leaving as well" Thel assured them.

"But Arbiter..." Cynder started to get worried.

"GO, NOW!" Thel shouted at them. They did as they were told and took off, flying out of the forest. Thel made a run for the Banshee. He jumped in the cockpit and activated the craft. Suddenly, A Grublin grabbed one of the plasma cannons to stop Thel from leaving.

"Off my Banshee you sick little freaks!" Thel shouted and fired both plasma cannons, killing the Grublin that was holding on to the weapon and any other ones that were running at the covenant attack craft. The Banshee started hovering in the air, shocking the Grublins that were in front of the craft.

"So long you little squeak toys!" Thel said his goodbye to the Grublins, leaving them with a blast from the engines of the Banshee, escaping from the forest. Spyro and Cynder were waiting for him in the air. As soon as Thel rejoined, they were on their way back to Warfang.

**Hope you enjoyed, review, and as always, have a nice day =)**


	16. Singing never hurt anyone

In the valley of Avalar, where the cheetah camp is, the villagers inspect the Phantom wreckage, in hopes that the Grunts would have left anything interesting to cheetah inhabitants. Prowlus's group arrived back just a few hours ago, right after the Lekgolo's attack on the city of Warfang, so they don't know that Arbiter, Cynder and Spyro aren't in the city and they even don't know about the Hunters themselves. What they do know is that a Phantom crashed right at their front door and they're salvaging it. Prowlus was watching some of the village's best warriors clean the whole thing out. So far, no weapons, equipment or anything that's even of use has been found. Hunter himself came out of the side of Phantom to bring some news to the leader. He has told Prowlus and the other cheetah's about the Brute threat, which means only trouble, so they must prepare for anything that might head towards them.

"What is it Hunter, have you found something?" Prowlus questioned him.

"No, there's only blue sparks coming off from the damage and burnt metal in there, seems that this thing wasn't meant to survive crashing into the ground" Hunter explained the situation.

"Damn it, keep searching, those stubby little freaks brought a large cannon with them that fires green energy, there has to be something in there?" Prowlus decided to look in the dropship himself, with Hunter following him in. In there was 3 other cheetahs, Meadow was the only known one. He tries to pick up a piece of wire, but ends up releasing a spark of blue plasma, narrowly avoiding a burn.

"This is getting quite dangerous, there is nothing in here and yet we still search for something that could still probably be useless in our hands, take that cannon for example" Meadow moaned about his job. He has avoided a couple of dangers besides sparks, like small pieces coming off the roof and onto the ground, almost hitting his head.

"Stop your pathetic moaning Meadow, it hasn't killed you yet so be grateful, we're not giving up until we find something useful!" Prowlus said with a demanding tone of voice. Meadow groaned as a response. They continued searching the ship. Hunter was picking up pieces of purple metal to clear the way, then suddenly right in front of his eyes, he finds a metal case that felt very heavy. He lifted it up to find that its much bigger than himself .This was indeed interesting.

"Hey, I think I found something" Hunter alerted the others. They came to look at his find. Hunter slowly opened the case to find weapons and raw plasma material. The weapons were 3 plasma rifles, 2 focus rifles, 1 concussion rifle, 2 beam rifles, some plasma grenades and even a plasma launcher. The Grunts must have not known about this stash, nor even the Brutes, because this is all Elite tech. The plasma material were glowing light blue crystals, used for energy swords. There was also energy sword handles that didn't have a fuel source, which means the crystals can be used for them.

"Whoa...now we really found something" Meadow was awed by this superior firepower, even if they didn't know what these weapons were or what they could do.

"Well, I think that would do. Take all of them to our armoury, we'll need them" Prowlus ordered.

"Hang on a second, don't you know what these are? This is something beyond our capabilities, it's probably best we take things back to the Elites, they know about these more than we will ever know, we use can't them for ourselves , it's too dangerous" Hunter objected this order. Even if they could be useful, they're destructive capabilities could endanger everyone in the village.

"Hunter, these Brutes that you told me about sound like dangerous foes to fight, we have to be prepared for the worse if they come to us" Prowlus just wanted these weapons in cheetah hands, objecting to the idea of taking the weapons back to the Sangheili.

"Prowlus, we have to take them to the Elites, maybe they could tell us how to use them. Besides, what if one ours accidently destroys the entire village. It would be because we didn't know how to use these things. Besides, maybe the Sangheili would let us use them if we were taught how to" Hunter tried to convince the chief. He made a good point. Yesterday, one of the blue clothed guards accidently fired a fuel rod, blowing up a hut, who knows what these could do.

"Ung...all right. We'll take them to the blasted 4 mandible beats bit we're still keeping these, no matter what they say!" Prowlus promised that they're keeping the weapons after they know how to use them.

"Deal" Hunter accepted these terms, but he knew the Elites would do something to keep the weapons in their possession.

Meanwhile in the air, after escaping yet another attack by unwanted enemies, Arbiter, Cynder and Spyro continue their journey back to Warfang, at least in one piece. Arbiter kept the Banshee at a steady speed so the dragons could keep up with him. The Grublins were able to put a couple of scratches on the Banshee but none so serious. Arbiter was breathless of how many there were. So many in the one forest was compelling for the Arbiter. Although they seemed weak to him, they were able to put up some resistance. No doubt those creatures are what Spyro and Cynder fought. The group were very high in the air, at least 15'000 feet in the air. They could see an entire landscape in front of them, though the cold air wasn't very soothing.

"Brr! It's freezing up here, how come we have to be up so high?" Cynder felt a shiver in her spine.

"Don't ask me, ask Thel" Spyro turned to the Banshee that was flying steady next to him.

"Unless you want to be spotted by anymore things that hate our guts, we're flying above the clouds until we near the city, because I'm guessing those things is what you fought in your war?" Thel yelled out to them because of how much the cockpit covers him.

"Yeah, They're the Grublins. They're quite stupid, but they still put up a fight...and they kill dragons just for the fun of it" Cynder was saddened by this particular thought, but shook it off immediately.

"Savage little creatures eh? bet they haven't seen anything that could appear out of nowhere then?" Thel grinned at the memory of absolutely surprising both the Grublins and the dragons.

"Yeah, how did you do that? you appeared out of nowhere! is it some kind of equipment your race uses?" Cynder asked him, she was curious how Thel could disappear and reappear with immediate access to it.

"As a matter of fact, my dragoness friend, it is. It's called camouflage, it allows my race's armour ability to bend light with extreme force, thus, creating a powerful invisibility cloak, very useful for sneaking up to unlucky enemies" Thel explained his camouflage abilities. This surprised both Cynder and Spyro, even though they're still a little sketchy on the subject.

"Well...I'm still a little confused but even then, it's an amazing ability you have!" Spyro was amazed about Thel's camouflage ability.

"It is, but unfortunately for me, my armour uses a weaker type of camouflage. Darst and Shin's armour can keep it up for an entire day, but since I wear Arbiter amour, which is ancient armour, it only lasts at least 30 seconds" Thel looked down on the controls after his sentence. He used to have the ability to have camouflage for as long as he could when he was supreme commander, but the stripping of his rank in the Covenant changed all that. Still, he portrays this as an advantage, which means he'd had to think quickly before time runs out and gets spotted. He'd had to be strategic and accurate to take out his enemies before his camouflage depletes.

"Your armour is much older than the other Sangheili armour isn't?" Cynder voice tone down a bit.

"Yeah. I was expected to be dead during my missions since I wore this armour, but luck always seems to be on my side. I survived attacks by the Heretics during my first Arbiter mission, I survived the flood's attacks and I was able to kill Tartarus, the Brute war chieftain...it must be on my side" Thel wondered. He survived a couple of the most impossible missions for a Sangheili Arbiter. Only few individual's could achieve this kind of status in the war.

"Don't forget that we saved you from Brutes, that one as well" Cynder reminded him. Thel happily grinned at this. Instead of Humans or any other Sangheili, he was saved by creatures that he met only a few days ago and now calls them friends. He lightly chuckled.

"And that of course...how could I forget" Thel said warmly. Cynder smiled happily as a response.

With the cold air freezing them, they continued to head back home, and hopefully, everything is still ok whilst they were gone...well, mostly everything. After a few moments though, Spyro starts to feel his wounds stinging once again. The pain when straight to into his head, begging him to land, but won't rest until he was back at Warfang. He was slightly behind Cynder, with Arbiter following the purple dragon. He couldn't but notice Cynder's long, sleek, seductive body. He loved how she flew so gracefully in the cold air, how peaceful she can be when there is almost nothing to fight at that moment. This did take his mind off his wounds as watched the black dragoness soar through the sky. He then heard the sound of her soothing voice. Spyro wondered what she was doing.

"_This is the darkest night._

_stars have all faded away_

_quiet upon this world..._

_through the clouds, there is a light_

_we will find our way..._

_**I would die for you,**_

_**cross the sky for you,**_

_**I will send out a light, burnin' for you alone,**_

_**you're all I need...**_

_**you set me free,**_

_**and this fire will Guide you...**_Spyro? Spyro!" Cynder noticed that the purple dragon was listening to her singing. Spyro himself was hypnotized by her voice, mesmerised by how she sang so beautifully, but the male dragon was quite embarrassed that she spotted him staring at her.

"Are you ok?" she asked him with her brow raised up.

"Yeah, I'm alright...you sang so amazingly just then" he politely commented her.

"Thanks, I've been practicing it for a while, during my alone times" Cynder appreciated what Spyro said and ended her sentence with a smile.

"Lover boy" Thel said to Spyro whilst passing by him. The purple dragon exposed a disgruntled look as a response. Cynder shook her head and flew closer to the him.

"I know you were staring at me for some time now, even before I was singing...what parts of me were you looking at?" she narrowed her eyes down at him and happily grinned. Spyro started trembling when she asked. He knew he wasn't just staring at her body, he was staring at a couple of parts of her where he shouldn't be, since he was flying behind her. This made him blush fully red around the face.

"I was just...uh, well-" Spyro was cut off by the next lot of Cynder's words.

"Wait a minute...I think we're here" Cynder descended through the clouds to see if the city was nearby, to Spyro's relief. It was, but something told the black dragoness that not all has been going well for the city. She called out to the other two, letting them know they're home.

"Guys, we're home, it's right below us, oh thank the ancestors!" Cynder shouted out loudly to let the others know where she was. Arbiter and Spyro also descended through the clouds. She was right, Warfang was right there, but it wasn't in its full glory. The trio noticed that a few buildings have collapsed and some of them were even still smoking. They noticed the Moles were trying to clean up, but really interested Thel was that on the walls of the city itself, two large blue armoured creatures were guarding it. They seemed so familiar to him.

"What happened here?" Cynder asked with a low tone of voice. She was quite shocked and worried to see the city with a few of its buildings collapsed to the ground. Arbiter then remembered last night when he saw a Brute Phantom flying overhead. Whatever was on the Phantom did this devastation...which also means the Brutes have found the city, the Elites and Grunts.

"The Brutes...they did this" Thel knew that this was the work of the Jiralhanae, but not quite so.

"Wha-what do you mean?" Spyro stuttered and asked Thel.

"What I mean is that the damned savages have found your city!...and my Elites" Thel started to worry. What if Darst and Shin were dead. There would be hell to pay, but Thel's thoughts were cut off by Cynder.

"How do you know, what makes you think that the Brutes did it?" Cynder knew Arbiter was hiding something and she was going to find out.

"Because...(sigh) I saw a Brute Phantom pass overhead last night. It was heading in the same direction we were" Thel relinquished what he knew and this angered Cynder.

"You...you knew that something was going to happen to the city and you didn't wake us up? why? we could have stopped!" she demanded to know why this happened. It's true, if Thel woke the young dragons up, the Phantom could have been stopped and they would've saved the city, but he didn't, and she was not happy about this.

"I thought they'd never find the city! You two were sleeping together so I didn't want to wake you up. I-" Thel was interrupted by the furious dragoness.

"Well they did find the city! It doesn't matter if we were both happily snuggled in! And now look what's happened, we let them go and this is caused. Grr, forget it, I'm going down there!" Cynder descended angrily with Spyro hot on her trail.

"Wait, Cynder, he's got a point, he didn't know that they would find it yet. Besides, there's still some survivors, that means they survived!" Spyro tried to calm her down, but to no extent.

"I don't care, he should've woke us up in the first place" she flew faster and closer to the ground, with Spyro still trying to catch up with her. Arbiter's Banshee could only watch them fly down. He sighed deeply.

"She's right...this could've been averted. Damn it!" Thel piloted the Banshee to follow the young dragons. He came down like a meteor through the Earth, just without the burning. He was saddened that Cynder blamed him for this attack, but she did make a good point. He used the Banshee boosters to quickly catch up to them. As he got closer though, he noticed that the young dragons were getting closer to the two armoured creatures. He then came to realise they were Hunters, a normal sized one and an overgrown one, and the dragons didn't know what they exactly were.

"No...Spyro, Cynder! don't go near them!" Arbiter shouted at the top of his lungs, but they either didn't hear him, or they ignored him. Either way, the dragons were almost in front of them. Cynder's eyes widened as the sight of the Hunters as they growled at her. She screamed when she closed her eyes and covered herself with her wings as she tried to stop herself from getting any closer to them, but the force of her speed made the young dragoness continue.

"Cynder!" Spyro shouted out to her. The larger Hunter raised its cannon to fire at her, but suddenly, Darst came running out of nowhere and grabbed and forcefully lower its cannon.

"Hold your fire, they're on our side!" Darst shouted out, grabbing the Hunter's attention.

Cynder rammed hard into the Hunter's shield, making a loud banging noise. She scrapped along the stone, kicking up a little dust. She stopped with a few scratches on her. As a result, she was knocked out from the hard metal of the shield. It looked like she was killed, but merely banged to hard into the shield, which horrified Spyro. The Hunters and Darst stared at her unconscious body, coming to realise they made a small mistake. The Hunter made a low growl, as if it was saying 'oops'.

"Oh, we're going to get so much crap for that" Darst said with worried tone of voice. It was to be noticed that he had a few bandages on him, from the fight with the Hunters last night, on his arms, left leg and around one part of his mandibles. He watched as Spyro came to her aid. He checked to see if she hurt. He didn't notice any blood wounds but there were a couple of scratches on her sides from the sliding and large bruise on her forehead, from where she knocked herself against the shield. He was relieved to see she wasn't dead as she was still slowly breathing, hearing her heart clearly beat from her chest.

"Oh, it's a miracle, you're ok...but you're going to be out for a little while now" Spyro whispered to her, even though she couldn't hear him.

Darst then heard the sounds of a Banshee coming down. He turned his attention to see Thel coming to land on the wall as well, just without the ramming into Hunters. Darst came to a huge exhale to see the Arbiter, still alive and well, coming out of the Banshee, but Thel had a seriously concerned face on him. Not only he saw Cynder get completely knocked out, but he noticed that there are freaking Lekgolo's on the wall as well. He also wanted to know why the city is damaged almost beyond repair.

"Arbiter, you're alive! how did-" Darst was cut off by Thel's demanded tone of voice.

"What happened? why are there Hunters here? how come you've got bandages on you? and why do I see some buildings that have been collapsed? where is Shin?" Thel looked really tipped off. He wanted to know everything that happened while he and the young dragons were gone. He a serious look in his eyes, which sparked fear in Darst, but he answered nevertheless.

"Thel...a Brute Phantom attacked last night whilst you were gone. I noticed that Spyro and Cynder were also gone too, and I instantly knew they went after you. The Phantom dropped off these Hunters and they attacked" Darst tried to answer everything as quickly as possible. Thel was slowly starting to get the idea but one if his brows slowly raised in confusion.

"If the Hunters are the enemy, how come they're just standing there and not trying to kill us?" Thel pointed out to the Hunters behind Darst, but the zealot continued his explanation without further ado.

"(sigh) The Lekgolo's attacked some buildings and the moles, as well as the Grunts, but they kept on missing live beings on purpose. Their entire plan all along was to trick the Brutes into that they were on their side, until they concentrated their fire on the Phantom itself, which escaped. In short, the Hunters have come to our aid, but the Jiralhanae now know of our location" Darst tried to explain everything clearly, but still a few things always came to Arbiter, naming one.

"How come you're in bandages then?" Thel asked whilst crossing his arms. Darst looked back at the larger Hunter, with disgruntled look on his face, turned back to Thel and continued to answer the Sangheili's question.

"Well...let's just say that giant Hunter back there is the cause of these injuries" Darst shrugged his shoulders. Thel raised his brow again.

"Hmm, I see. Where's Shin and those two Grunts at then?" Thel started to have a calm look in his eyes. Shin then came up a pathway to the top of the wall, walking with the two little Grunts waddling beside him. Yapflop then got excited to see that the Arbiter was still alive.

"Arbiter! our saviour, you're alright!" Yapflop ran up to Thel and held onto his legs, like a youngling to its parents. Thel was surprised by this act made to the Grunt, even though Arbiter was the one almost killing Yapflop before.

"Uh...you're Yapflop aren't you, the one I chocked yesterday for answers?" Thel was sorry for what he did, and Yapflop just got reminded about that event.

"Oh, yeah that, um, but I knew you was just playing" the Grunt had a grinning look on his face.

"Actually, I wasn't, I almost killed you" Arbiter didn't exactly smile that sentence. Yapflop's face went from a grin, to drooping his arms and body down.

"Oh...ok" Yapflop slowly walked back to Jabjab, with a tiny bit of embarrassment on his face. Jabjab was quite disappointed with Yapflop with his arms crossed as well, but then again, he always was disappointed in his friend.

"Unggoy these days...Thel, I'm so glad you're alive, Darst told me you were going to the Brute encampment. That was a grave mistake you made wasn't it?" Shin walked up in front of Thel with a worried expression.

"Ung...I was. Those beasts didn't take the lie I made and they were still going to stay on the planet until everyone they were going to meet was dead. I feel so stupid right now" Thel held his head and shook it in shame.

"Don't worry. The dragons were able to get you out of there in one piece, but I must ask one thing. What kind of force did the Jiralhanae have?" Shin was concerned to know the Brutes numbers and size. Thel remembered the huge army those traitors had. He had a shiver come on to him when he remembered the size of Magnaruckus. He looked back up to Shin.

"I think it would be best if I told the guardians about it. Everyone can then know about it" Thel placed his right hand on Shin's left shoulder, showing concern that the threat needed to be told to everyone without repeat.

"Ok...what happened to Cynder?" Shin just noticed the Hunters staring at Spyro with the knocked out dragoness. Darst and Thel turned back to see them in that state. Yapflop started laughing hilariously.

"Ha ha, that's right, the black one crashed into the big Hunter shield! Ha, that was golden!" Yapflop thought this was hysterical, but Jabjab showed more of his disappointment towards Yapflop by hitting him in the back of the head.

Thel exhaled in deeply, remembering how she blamed Arbiter for this situation, but nevertheless, he was still loyal and respectful to her, and he knew he had to clear things up with her. Without question, he walked past the Hunters to come up in front of Spyro, with the unconscious black dragoness laying next to him.

"Is she alright?" Thel expressed his concern for the young dragoness to Spyro. The purple dragon looked at her forehead to see the large bruise she copped from the impact.

"She'll be fine, but she needs some rest" this relieved Thel. "We have to take Cynder back to her room, in the Atrium. I'll keep her company until she wakes" Spyro told Thel what had to be done.

"Ok then" Thel said whilst gently picking up Cynder in his arms to carry her. Spyro stood up as Thel had a good hold of her.

"You can come with me to take her back to the place. I'll carry her while we go" Thel told the purple dragon. Spyro nodded and followed Thel to keep a close eye on Cynder. They walked past the former Covenant group down the pathway leading back to ground level, with the Elites, Grunts and Hunters watching them go by. When they were out of sight, Darst turned his attention towards the Hunters.

"Remember what the yellow dragon said, and stay on duty until things get back in order. You two are still in deep trouble for destroying those buildings" Darst ordered the Hunters. They both let out low growls and turned towards the landscape around the city, guarding it from unwanted visitors.

"Which reminds me Kino, have you finished repairing that Library?" Shin asked the zealot.

"Yes I did now that you remind me. I finished it when that yellow dragon dismissed us after last night. I'm free to do what I wish now, thank the gods for that" Darst answered Shin's question without stutter. Shin happily nodded, knowing that Darst has done some good things since that day. Jabjab was listening to the Elites conversation until he was cut off by Yapflop singing, he turned slowly to see not only was he singing, but dancing as well.

"_Something in the way, his moves, attract me like no other Arbiter, something in the way, he moves me_!" Yapflop was suddenly punched in the face by Jabjab, sending him spinning n the air and landing on his face. The green armoured Unggoy was annoyed by the orange armoured Grunt's singing.

"Dude, stick to being an idiot why don't ya?" he politely but sarcastically asked Yapflop.

**Finally got this one done, school's a pain in the ass but, oh well, it does me good. Hope you enjoyed, review, any critical advice, ect, ect. I'm out.**


	17. A nice bang on the marks of darkness

**Sorry if it's been a while since an update, I've been sick for the past few days. Don't expect this chapter to be a piece of art but here goes nothing. Also, expect it fairly short**

"...2 days from now...you will all be cleansed from this world you wretched Sangheili...you and your little scrawny pets will be eradicated until the last one is nothing but a bloody corpse" Magnaruckus was making a threat speech in front of a purple camcorder device used create holograms of the individual. It records everything the oversized chieftain does. A Brute minor was controlling the device from behind, like any other camera. The room they're was pretty dark and everything seemed silent except for the chieftain's rumbling deep voice.

A few Jiralhanae captains were watching their brutal leader with shock and awe, as well as being inspired by what he says, even if it's only about ripping people in half and eating their flesh. This is the kinda thing they needed to boost their morale, especially after rebuilding their encampment. Magnaruckus was just finishing his speech and the minor behind the device started turning off the camcorder. He pressed a small button to release a small data pad that's recorded everything.

"Hey, where's that little uh...whatever you call it. You know, those image producing things?" the Brute didn't even know what the contraption was to create the images from the data pad. A captain sighed and brought in a holographic projector, placing it on the floor. These are the same ones that were once used by the Prophet of Regret and Prophet of Truth to send out their propaganda to the entire Covenant. That same captain made a respectful huff to the minor, but the blue armoured Brute got a little annoyed.

"Grr...just give it here" the Brute pulled projector over to him and placed the data pad it inside.

"There, we can get a Phantom to transport this pile of metal to the stone city. I just hope that the dropship can get past those damned traitorous Lekgolo's" the minor got up and crossed his arms, whilst staring at the hologram projector. Magnaruckus ignored the minor and went to pick up the Fist of Rukt, which was sitting by the doorway.

"Chieftain, that was a perfect speech you spoke just then, the Sangheili will surely fear it, but is it true that we have to attack them in two days?" a captain asked Magnaruckus with a brow raised, surprised to know that the attack is somewhat very soon.

"Yes it is pack brother, in two days, we will be using everything we have against them, and I'm promising every Brute in the encampment that no one shall survive our attack" Magnaruckus assured the captain. The Brute still had a couple of questions in mind though.

"When do we move out? it takes a fair while for our Phantoms to make a trip from this place to the stone city, imagine how long it will take our ground forces to get there" the captain did make a good point, but this didn't stop them. Magnaruckus made a light chuckle.

"Don't worry my faithful captain. We move out in just a couple of hours. The Scarab will be transported on the Cruiser. The rest of us will be on foot with our ground vehicles. Speaking of vehicles, what are our numbers for them?" Magnaruckus wanted to know how large the ground force was. The captain remembered counting them yesterday.

"We have 5 Wraiths, 6 Choppers and 4 Ghosts. Apparently, we don't have any Prowlers, which is unfortunate. If you'd like to know, we also have at least 12 Banshees and 10 Seraphs, thanks to the battle we had with the Carrier that a few days ago, as well as 17 Phantoms" the captain explained their vehicle numbers. This somewhat concerned the chieftain.

"Huh, I thought our numbers were larger than that, what happened to most of our forces?" Magnaruckus asked the brute captain.

"Last night, those scrawny, 4 legged, freak flyers were able to damage and destroy some of our vehicles. Although most of our troops survived, the bloody creatures were able to annihilate most of our vehicle depots. They've cut our force down half a size!" the captain exclaimed, raising his arms a bit. Magnaruckus could only growl in hatred and tightened the Fist of Rukt that he had in his possession. Attacking the encampment and saving the Arbiter were a couple of things to piss off the chieftain, but eradicating half the vehicle force is a whole different story. Exposing his teeth, his growls became a tiny louder, causing the captain to back off, but still in talking distance with the chieftain.

"Wretched little freaks! From this point on, they are just good as dead as any other Sangheili! We will rip them into bloody streaks of meat, we will spill their blood on the unclean ground, hell, I'd even start eating one of them if I'd had too. As a matter of fact, if you ever see one, make it suffer like you would with any other Sangheili!" Magnaruckus wanted the young dragons to die slowly.

"Uh...all right then. We can make some new vehicles from the 'Prophets Vengeance if you wish but for two days? We'll only recover half of what we lost…What is our orders chietain?" the captain respectfully asked the giant Brute. Magnaruckus just started walking out of the dark room and outside, but not before he tells the captain what must be done.

"Right now, I want you and a couple of other Brutes to transport that holographic projector to the stone city. Do not attack anyone there, it's much better just to kill them all in one day and not separate ones. By then, they will know we're coming. Even if they were ready, they wouldn't have the assets and resources to stop us. Now get to it!" he ordered the captain whilst leaving the room. The yellow armoured Brute bowed down quickly and turned to the Brute minor and another captain.

"You two, grab that projector and follow me to a Phantom, we're taking it to the Sangheili" the Brute declared. The other captain and the minor both nodded without question and took hold of the projector and followed their pack brother outside to a Phantom dropship.

Back in Warfang, inside the Grand Atrium, Thel was gently carrying the unconscious dragoness, in his arms, to her room with Spyro, who was walking alongside with the Sangheili. The purple dragon was going to take care of Cynder while until she wakes up. This would also give both dragons time to rest from their flight. Thel though, had to tell everyone about the threat posed by the Brutes. It's imperative that everyone is told about this and has to be prepared for any attack made by the Jiralhanae. Spyro starts to keep a close eye on Cynder now, especially in the state she's in now. When they came to her room's front door, Thel was able to open it without dropping the dragoness. They both entered the room and the Sangheili placed Cynder nice and easily on her bed, resting the dragoness's head against a cushion.

"Ok. This is a guess, but judging from her impact with the Lekgolo's shield, she should wake up within just a few minutes...hopefully" Thel slowly stroked her head with his right hand, making sure to avoid touching the bruise. Spyro jumped on the bed, lying next to her. He turned his attention towards Thel, almost about to ask a question.

"Lekgolo? Is that what those things are?" Spyro asked the Arbiter. Thel swung his head to the purple dragon.

"Yep. They're a colony of wormlike creatures all packed neatly into one enormous suit of armour. In my opinion, much better allies than those stupid little idiot Unggoy. From what Darst told me, these ones betrayed the Brutes, but I still don't fully trust them" Thel was not confident enough to think that the Hunters were their allies yet, after all, who knows if they were just being used to spy on the Elites and their plans.

"But they must be strong and powerful, aren't they?" Spyro questioned Thel about the Lekgolo's abilities.

"They are, but if they're weak spots are exposed, they're doomed. It's important that the enemy never gets the chance to sneak up behind them" Thel was talking about the exposed flesh on the backs on the Hunters. It's always been the weak spot of these beasts. Spyro nodded, slowly understanding these Lekgolo creatures. Thel then just noticed something on Spyro's tail, the bandages that he's had on for a while now.

"Say, have those bandages there been on your tail ever since that night after the fire?" Thel asked the purple dragon.

"I forgot about these…" Spyro just remembered having these white strips on him. He extended a two left claws and sliced through the bandages, without stabbing himself, and took them off. Cynder's bite wounds were not there anymore. His scales have fully healed in that area, though, his back still had a couple of dented wounds from the spikes he had in him from last night.

He looked back at the young Cynder, who was twitching her entire body. It could be a small response to her waking up. Spyro slowly wrapped his tail around hers, whilst keeping a close watch on the young dragoness. Her front and hind legs then started to lazily move forwards and backwards. Her mouth opened a exhale some of her breath. Thel looked closely at her to see the emerald of eyes of the dragoness slowly reveal themselves once more to the world.

"Ung...ah...my head" she moaned, feeling her bruise but still resting her fragile head against the cushion.

"Welcome back to the real world Cyn" Thel greeted her with some instance of sarcasm.

"Wha...what happened?" she slowly twisted her head slowly to stare at Thel and Spyro, but her eyes weren't fully open yet.

"You rammed into a strong metal shield and well...you made a good bruise on your head" Spyro clearly answered her without stutter. She groaned and rested her head back on the cushion.

"Oh...that's what it was…my head stings…Who was holding the shield anyway?" she asked them both. Spyro looked at Thel to make him answer the question because the Elite obviously knew more about the Hunters than him.

"(sigh) the ones holding the shields were Lekgolo's. You know, those giant creatures I told you about a couple of days ago?" Thel reminding Cynder about that day when he told everyone about the Covenant war. Her eyes widened with shock. From what the Arbiter had told the dragoness, Hunters are even more powerful than Brutes but unfortunately they only go in pairs.

"(gulp) is it the friendly kind of Lekgolo?" she wanted to know if they were on Thel's side.

"Darst told me they betrayed the Brutes so, I guess they are" he assured her. She sighed in huge relief. Thel then remembered what those Hunters did to the city and Cynder blamed him for not waking her and Spyro up to stop the dropship transporting them. He wanted forgiveness for what's happened, otherwise, things might get bad later on.

"Cynder. I'm sorry for what's happened to the city. I should've woke you up, or better yet, I should've just jumped into the Banshee and do it myself, but I was a fool for not doing it. You have every right to blame me" Thel apologised to the dragoness. She turned around to look at Thel stare for stare.

"(sigh) It's ok I guess. The city is still standing for the most part and, before I knocked myself out, I was able to witness that everyone was alright. I forgive you Thel" Cynder took up his apology. Arbiter expressed a smiling expression. Then something else came to his mind.

"Which reminds me, where's lightbulb at?" Thel mentioned the nickname for Sparx.

"Over here" Sparx revealed himself just at the edge of the window. The trio turned to see him just hovering in. Thel had a 'I'm going to kill you' look on his face. The glowing dragonfly just noticed Cynder had the bruise on her head. He flew just in front of Spyro to get in talking distance with the dragon.

"What happened to her?" he asked Spyro, expressing his concern for the young dragoness, although, Sparx really never cared for her anyways, but the purple dragon answered nonetheless.

"She accidently rammed into one of the Lekgolo's shields. Now she's got one heck of a bruise" Spyro turned back to the dragoness, who's eyelids were almost closed. She didn't want to be bothered talking to the dragonfly.

"Oh ok...I hope she gets better then...what the? dude, what happened to your back?" Sparx just suddenly spotted the dented looking wounds where the spikes used to impale him. Spyro twisted his head around to see his back getting a bit better than it was, then turning back to Sparx.

"I got those from when we saved Thel from the Brute encampment, spike wounds, like what Cynder got from Darst during the fire, though, only 3 hit me" he replied. This angered the dragonfly. He flew up in front of Arbiter's face.

"Hey, they save your hide and they get hurt for it? Why didn't you help them huh?" Sparx was angry because he thinks Thel didn't do anything except get Spyro and Cynder, giving him all the blame.

"First of all lightbulb, I killed the Brute that impaled Spyro with those spikes. Secondly, I had to get them out of him like last time. Last but not least, I helped them fight off those little green freaks you guys call Grublins. If you think I've done nothing this entire time and just let the dragons get hurt all night, you're dead wrong" Thel explained the truth. This made the glowing dragonfly back off with ease.

"Eaahh…Is that true?" he turned to Spyro.

"Yes, it's all true" Spyro was a little annoyed that Sparx didn't have any faith in the elite.

"Alright, fine, I'm sorry then" he apologised to Thel, but then both Cynder and Spyro cleared their throats loudly to tell Sparx to say sorry for what he made the Arbiter almost do.

"And...I'm sorry that...I made you go to those Brute things" he bowed his head down with shame. Thel made a respectful huff as a response.

"I accept your couple of apologies. Just don't do it again" he told Sparx firmly. Sparx only nodded carelessly. Spyro and Cynder shook their heads at Sparx, without him noticing.

Thel looked outside the window where Sparx came from. He could see some parts of the city, the land and the sky. Also a small dot in the sky...that's getting very close. Arbiter tilted his head to the left a bit, wondering what it is. It started to make a noise, the same exact noise a Phantom makes.

"Oh shit" he cursed.

**Yea, I'm terribly sorry for the small chapter, but I've been sick, give me a break. Anyways, until next.**


	18. Regaining reality

"Get that projector into position, now!" the Brute captain ordered his crew, the minor and the other captain, whilst he was driving the Phantom.

"Yes pack brother" the other captain took his order well. They both groaned as they lifted the projector and place it just near the edge of the gravity lift.

"We're getting closer to the city, this might get a bit bumpy" the captain kept a good hold of the controls as he saw the great walls of Warfang.

"What makes you say that?" the minor questioned his superior. It was clear that the ride for them was going to get bumpy, as the two Hunters just suddenly notice the dropship. They both roared at the sight of the Brute craft with their spines raised up, making them look much more fierce. Darst and Shin heard the Lekgolo's from inside a small building just on a street.

"Did you hear that?" Shin asked the zealot, wondering if it wasn't just himself that heard the noise.

"Yeah. It was the Hunters, there must be something coming towards us, c'mon" Darst got up from a table and proceeded outside. Shin followed him with a quick reaction.

As they were both outside, they tried to look on top of the wall to see if anything will pass the Hunters and enter the city. The Lekgolo's were firing at the dropship, but luckily for the Brutes, the captain driver evaded left and right to avoid being hit by the powerful beam cannons. With each miss bring the dropship ever closer to the city walls. Soon, the area where Darst and Shin was soon crowded by Mole guards, confused by what's going on. Only the Hunters knew what they're up against. Jabjab and Yapflop also came to the scene, but they were staying a few fair feet away from the crowds of moles.

"What's going on?" Yapflop asked his friend, but Jabjab was just as confused.

"I, I don't know" Jabjab muttered to the orange Grunt. Yapflop turned back to looking at the top of the wall as everyone else was. At the Atrium entrance, Thel, Spyro and Cynder, as well as Sparx, sprinted down the large stairs. They were trying to reach the wall themselves.

"Why can't we have a normal day for once?" Thel muttered whilst he was running.

"If you ask me, there is no such thing as normal!" Cynder heard the elite's question.

"Eh...that's true" Thel agreed.

"What do you think they're doing here?" Spyro asked the Sangheili.

"I don't know, but I know this, they ain't here to be friends with us" he replied with some sense of sarcasm.

"I don't they'd ever want to be friends ever since you guys fought against them and we almost burnt down they're encampment" Cynder added.

"Yea, guess so. C'mon, we have to get to the Hunters" Thel sprinted a little faster, with the dragons running on both his sides, just keeping up with him. Sparx flew just behind all three of them.

"Oh please, they haven't brought a lot of them" Sparx prayed with his hands held together.

The Hunters couldn't stop the dropship from flying over them. Surprisingly, the Phantom didn't shoot at them as it flew over the wall. It just, ignored them, as if the Lekgolo's never exited there. Darst and Shin's mandibles dropped at the sight of the Phantom. The moles were just as shocked to see the Brute craft right in front of their eyes. The Lekgolo's stopped firing as their just wasting the fuel in their cannons. Yapflop and Jabjab trembled before the dropship. Should they stand still or run for it.

"AAHHH!" they both made a sprint for it. Jabjab may not be afraid of some things, but Brutes scare the methane out of him.

As the dropship started to hover, the young dragons and Arbiter were able to stop just before it. Cynder and Spyro got defensive when the Phantom hanged there just before them. Thel readied his energy sword, awaiting to see what comes out of the dropship. Sparx hid behind Spyro, so he could not get hurt and not look at the Brute craft. Jabjab and Yapflop were under the damn thing. They both fell on their methane packs, looking up at the dropship. Darst and Shin arrived behind the two Grunts and they both pulled out the same weapons for each other, energy swords and spikers. Some mole guards arrived with on both sides of the dropship with the elites and dragons, the Grunts right between the them all with the Brutes hovering above them. The Hunters arrived with Darst and Shin. Now almost everyone was here to fight anything that comes out of the dropship. Almost all was silent, with the exception of the engine noises of the Phantom.

"What are they waiting for?" Shin asked. Darst shook his head.

"I don't know" he whispered.

Suddenly, a hologram projector dropped out of the gravity lift. It landed just next to the Grunts. When it landed, the little Unggoy made a run to Thel's side of the crowds. They all stared at the projector. No Brutes? just this?

"Uh, what's that?" Cynder turned to Arbiter.

"Its...a hologram projector. Why are they dropping this?" he asked himself. Cynder turned back to the device.

"Go! Our job's done. Let's get back to the encampment!" the Brute minor shouted to the Brute captain driving. He nodded and piloted the ship away from the crowds, hoping to get out of here in one piece. Everyone watched the Phantom try to leave the city. Not for long though. A large shake and bang was made inside the Phantom.

"ARGH! WHAT WAS THAT?" the minor roared.

"I DON'T KNOW, BUT I CAN'T CONTROL THIS DAMN THING! AGGGH!" the captain shouted. Outside, the Phantom's back armour was on plasma fire from an attack. Volteer and Terrador were chasing after the large craft , trying to destroy the craft before it escapes. A large bolt of electricity made by the yellow dragon was heading straight for the Phantom. In an instant, the electricity went through the whole ship, frying the circuits and causing the small fuel reactor of the ship to blow into a blue plasma ball of devastation. The dropship was annihilated.

"Well, that seemed to do the trick" Volteer chuckled.

"Yeah...way too well" Terrador mumbled. They both turned back to see where the crowds are. They were almost all gathered around the hologram projector, waiting to see what it does, but Thel knew it had to be manually turned on.

"Shin. Switch it on, let's see what it is" he called out to the blue armoured Elite. Tarscar nodded his head and moved to the projector. He pressed a few buttons on the controls until a blue holographic image of chieftain Magnaruckus was staring at Thel and Cynder. Everyone was breathless at the sight, especially Shin who backed off immediately and went back to Darst's side.

"Magnaruckus..." Thel hissed.

"Greetings Sangheili and other beings. I am chieftain Magnaruckus, proud leader of the cruiser; 'the Prophets vengeance' and your darkest fears and nightmare put together. I'm the one responsible for leading the attack against your precious little carrier, the Shadow of Intent. Oh, a pity that was now wasn't it, wouldn't you agree Arbiter?" the message played and Thel growled at the last few words.

"No one attack, it's just a message, not the real thing" Darst shouted to everyone. They started lowering their weapons and continued to listen to the message.

"Now that we know where you are, we will crush and eradicate anything that stands in our way to our goal...which is crushing and eradicating everything that stands in our way. Your city will burn until its surface is but glass, and even your newfound allies won't survive from what we have in store for all of you. I promise in 2 days...you will all be cleansed from this world you wretched Sangheili...you and your little scrawny pets will be eradicated until the last one is nothing but a bloody corpse. I might even get to chew on the bones of the creatures who attacked our encampment, the black one and the purple one. We shall have the honours of ripping all of you limb from pathetic limb. 2 days, in the morning...YOU SHALL ALL BE ANNIHILATED FROM EXISTANCE!" Magnaruckus' evil laughter went into everyone's hearts and minds. A massive attack made by the Brutes in just two days. The most shocked of them all was Thel, Shin and Darst. They never expected an attack made by the Jiralhanae so early. The city has only 48 hours to prepare itself for a vicious battle. Even if it was prepared, could the inhabitants stop the Brutes?

"I can't believe it...only two days?" Thel muttered with fear. Cynder turned to him and the fear in his eyes. This indeed looked grim. Magnaruckus' image slowly faded as the message finished. Suddenly, a robotic kind of noise came from the projector.

"This device will self destruct in 3...2...1" the projector was about to detonate. Shin's eyes widened.

"EVERYBODY GET DOWN!" Shin shouted. The projector created a large explosion, sending out a large blast wave, causing everyone to fall back. Screaming, moaning and shouting was caused by the entire crowd. When the explosion cleared up, almost everyone was on the ground. The Hunters were flat on their backs from the blast wave, lightly moaning as a reaction. Shin and Darst were laying on a knocked out pack a moles, and they were also having a bit of a moan. Jabjab and Yapflop groaned as they tried to get up. Thel was also flat on his back, like the Hunters. But unlike the Lekgolo's, Cynder was blown onto her stomach and Spyro laid next to her head. Sparx was also knocked out on the ground just next to the Arbiter. The dragoness slowly lifter her head up and examined her surroundings.

"Ung...ok...that one hurt" she muttered whilst trying to get up. She looked down to see Spyro almost in the same state.

"Spyro? Spyro! get up!" she yelled at him, causing the purple dragon to lazily move his head up.

"Ow...ok, what was that?" he wanted to know what the heck happened.

"That thing blew itself up. It wasn't just a message, it was also a trap" she was right. The Brutes booby trapped the projector to self destruct. Devious beasts. Cynder turned to the almost completely knocked out Thel, who looked like he couldn't breathe that much.

"Arbiter, you ok?" she asked.

"No" he replied dryly.

"Why, what's wrong?" she couldn't see the obvious.

"You're standing on my freaking stomach" he sounded like he was about to throw up. Cynder suddenly felt embarrassed.

"Oh...oops, sorry" she jumped off and Thel could breathe much better. He slowly picked himself up and felt a little shake in his legs from the blast. He looked around to see that, even if everyone was knocked back by the blast, no one looked severely injured or was killed. The Grunts were able to pick themselves up with ease, as they're used to that kinda thing. Darst and Shin got themselves off the moles so the furballs could get up as well.

"Argh! blasted Brutes! I should have known they would use a dirty trick like that!" Darst grumbled as he just got up. Shin held out his arm, letting the zealot know he needs a hand. Darst helped Tarscar up and checked to see if they could help the Hunters. Spyro turned down onto the ground and saw Sparx getting up and shaking his little head.

"You alright Sparx?" he asked the glowing dragonfly.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm fine, but darn, that really sucked! now why do they have to go and do a trick like that?" Sparx asked quite a stupid question.

"Obviously, the Brutes wanted to...surprise us, and by the god's, it did" Thel cracked his neck side to side, and Cynder could even hear it those bone-cracking noises, which shivered her spine. Darst helped the two Hunters up, which actually challenged his strength, considering their weight and height. When everyone was back on their feet, they gathered around to discuss the threat made by the Brutes. Suddenly, Thel was bombarded by questions made by the moles and even the Grunts.

"What are we going to do now?", "They're coming here, how are we going to defend ourselves?", "DO YOU WANT TO HEAR THE SONG I MADE UP JUST FOR YOU ARBITER?", "How are we able to stop them?" the questions just raided his mind. Try and guess which one was the Grunt's question.

"I can't answer all of them at once damn it!" he shouted, but they all continued. Cynder, Spyro, Sparx, Darst, Shin, Jabjab and the two Hunters just watched him get crowded by the moles...and Yapflop. Suddenly, a loud, deep voice was echoed through the entire city so every mole could shut up and Yapflop could run back to Cynder's group.

"ENOUGH!" Terrador shouted extremely loud. Everyone turned to the three guardians who were standing there in front of the entire town folk. Thel got out of the crowds of moles and stood in his own group, with Yapflop running back to Jabjab's side.

"There was no way that the Arbiter could handle all of those at once and all of you should know better than that! There's only one simple question for this and it's this one. Arbiter, what are going to do?" he asked politely, but firmly. They all turned to him, even his friends and allies did. A least over 50'000 eyes were staring him. It made his heart race to see everyone staring at him like this but the elite answered nevertheless, but even then...

"Well...to tell you all the honest truth...I have no idea" Thel was ashamed that he hasn't got a clue what the city should do. Chat and muttering could be heard throughout the crowds. Darst looked at him with some disappointment.

"What do you mean you don't have any idea? we have to defend ourselves of course!" Darst suggested, but that seemed somewhat hopeless to the Arbiter.

"Kino, you don't understand, the Jiralhanae have us outgunned. They have a lot more ranged weapons that are more technological than what this city has, they have ground vehicles, they have a freaking Scarab! Not to mention that in two days, A CRUISER WILL HOVER ABOVE OUR HEADS AND GLASS THIS PLACE!" Thel yelled right in front of the zealot's face. Darst was left with a stunned face. Everyone was staring at Arbiter's small group. Shin and the Grunts were looking at the two elites with eyes wide open, but Cynder was the more shocked one. Has Thel lost the confidence that they could all put up a fight against the Jiralhanae.

Suddenly, the front gates of Warfang slowly opened. Everyone turned to the front and saw Hunter himself peek in to see what was with all the shouting.

"Um...is this a bad time?" he asked whoever was willing to answer.

"Yes it is Hunter...and welcome back" Terrador greeted him.

"Well um...sorry to barge in like this then but uh...we come here with gifts!" he looked directly at the elites. He gave them a strange face that very confident, yet cocky.

"What kind of 'gifts' cheetah?" Darst asked him.

"These" Hunter opened the gates even more widely and many cheetah's, including Prowlus and Meadow, walked in with the many weapons that they found at the Grunt's Phantom crash site. The Elites looked at the weapons in shock.

"By the Prophets!" Darst exclaimed.

"Wh-wher-huh?" Shin was totally clueless. Thel mandibles were dropped but then slowly turned into a grin.

"Hmm...I know what we should do now" he put an evil kind of smile on his face.

"I don't like that expression Thel's making" Sparx noticed it.

"For once, you and I both agree on something" Cynder also didn't like it.

**I'm feeling a lot better now, phew! so yea, same as last time disclaimers...I just can't be bothered writing them again like on the other chapters. A 78 out.**


	19. Mag's unexpected message

As the elites examined the weapons brought by the cheetah's, Thel walked up to them and looked at the weapons himself. He took hold of the plasma launcher. Looking at the large launcher weapon, he wanted to know where the cheetah's found such a good stash of weapons.

"Hunter, where did you find these?" he asked the yellow cat with brow raised.

"We were scavenging the crashed ship those Grunt's left and we found these things in some kid of metal box. We didn't know how to use them so I thought we'd take to you to see if we can work with them, without blowing up our own village" he explained to the Arbiter.

"I see" he murmured with a smile. He wiped a bit of dust off the shiny plasma launcher. Darst was holding the concussion rifle, a hand held plasma cannon, whilst Shin was wielding one of the focus rifles, a long range beam weapon.

"These weapons...they're the same ones we used for the battle of Reach!" Shin exclaimed at the sight of these objects of war.

"And only Reach. Some of these were just prototypes when we used them and never again we fired them after the battle. The Brutes probably didn't notice these were aboard their Phantoms" Darst thought. Thel nodded, thinking that Darst could be right.

"All right elites, give us back our weapons, we found them, which means, we keep them" Prowlus asked the elites. They all looked directly at him, which made the cheetah leader back off a bit. Thel huffed inside of him, disagreeing to the idea.

"I don't think so Prowlus. You don't even know how to use them, these three specific weapons here have very disastrous consequences if they're used in the wrong hands, and I don't think you or any of those other felines qualify for these" Thel spoke firmly. This angered Prowlus, stomping his left foot in the process.

"Outrageous, we bring you these things and yet, we're not allowed to use them? I demand to know why!" he asked with fury. Hunter shook his head in disappointment. Prowlus was being stubborn once again.

" I just told you" Thel muttered with his eyelids going across half his eyesight.

"Well...why don't you tell us how to use them then?" the cheetah leader demanded. Darst and Shin looked at Thel, wanting to know what the Arbiter's answer to this was. Thel smiled.

"If everyone of you have the patience, yes I will. It's part of my plan actually" he grinned. Both Hunter and Prowlus were shocked of this. they expected him to say a huge no, but it seems they were wrong. Darst was concerned about this idea.

"Thel, no disrespect, but they could some serious damage with these if they use them wrong. And what kind of plan do you have exactly?" Kino curiously asked. Vadam turned to the zealot, still with his grinned face.

"It's a simple one Darst. If we upgrade some of these weapons, modify the Banshee, design strong armour for each individual and create a walker kind of vehicle, we have a good chance at fighting the Brutes toe to toe, think about it" Thel's plan sounded quite full proof. Darst raised a brow with some shock. Upgrading, modifying, designing and creating?

"Uh...I don't know..." Kino didn't sound convinced, but let everyone else decide about this one. Thel shook his head and ran to some higher ground. He climbed up upon a stone platform nearby and grabbed everyone's attention.

"Everyone, gather round, I might have an idea of how we can get even with the Jiralhanae" He yelled out to everyone. They all crowded around the high platform, staring right at the Arbiter.

"How, how can we Thel?" Volteer asked the Elite.

"I'm glad you asked. Elites, Grunts, Dragons, Moles, Hunters and Cheetahs. As of right now, we have a current of arsenal of some high technological weapons, a Banshee, a few cannons at the walls of the city, and a couple of strong allies. That's not enough to fight the Brutes with. What I propose is that we make our weapons of war. Whilst I train the cheetahs to wield my race's weapons, I need a few volunteers to make a few groups to do some creative work. I need one group to work on modifying the Banshee to be more faster and more manoeuvrable. I need a group to work on designing strong armour for each individual in the city. I also need a group on designing on a Locust class walker, it's like a miniature Scarab. Finally, I want someone to make some energy sword like weapons. If all this can be done in two days, we might stand a chance against the Brutes. Any questions?" Thel asked the crowds. They were all looking to see who was going to ask first, until Shin was the first to raise his hand.

"Yes Tarscar" Thel stared at the blue armoured elite.

"Yeah, first, how the hell are we going to make a Locust? we don't have an engine or a beam cannon to start off with" he was concerned about the walker. Thel raised his brow.

"Use your imagination. And since you asked about the Locust, you're in charge of making it" he pointed at Shin.

"Ah dammit!" he cussed. Jabjab raised his claw to ask the next question.

"By modifying the Banshee, you mean make it look like that more sleeker model that was used on Reach?" the green armoured Grunt asked.

"Exactly. Back then, it was better than the model we have now. If we have the better version of the Banshee, and if we can get a good pilot to drive it, we have a good chance of going against the Brutes Banshees and Seraphs. It's the best air defence we have. Since you asked about that Grunt, you're in charge of remaking it" he appointed the Unggoy.

"Well thank-WHAAAAT?" he was shocked that he was in charge of something.

"Arbiter, are you kidding me, that little runt won't even remember what the sleeker Banshee looks like" Darst pointed at Jabjab, with the Grunt having a 'serious face' as a reaction.

"What's wrong Darst? no faith in our Grunts?" Thel smirked.

"Not with the recent events we've had with them, no" the zealot crossed his arms, unhappy with the Arbiter's decision to make Jabjab in charge of something.

"Well tough. Jabjab, it's your job that you, Yapflop and some moles recreate the sleek version of the Banshee, the exact same one we used on Reach. I hope you remember what it looks like" he questioned the Grunt. Jabjab scratched his head in confusion. He vaguely remembers what it looked like, but with no choice, he has to say something convincing.

"Uh...yeah, I think I remember it! (I'm dead if this doesn't work out)" this made the Arbiter smile. He turned back to the zealot.

"Now Darst, since you argued about my decision to make that Grunt in charge of the Banshee recreation, I'm appointing you to design our energy sword weapons. I'm sure that's a task you can accomplish" Thel raised an eyebrow. Darst huffed respectfully towards the Arbiter.

"I guess I can make a few. I would need a few energy crystals to do it though" he demanded. Meadow came out with a few in his hands. He handed it over to the zealot. They were quite large in Darst's hands, but nevertheless, he has the most important material for making energy like weapons.

"Excellent, any handles?" he turned to Meadow.

"You mean these?" he grabbed the handles off a nearby cheetah guard and handed them over to the zealot.

"Yes, exactly these! I have everything I need to make some now...I might even use some of these crystals to make ranged energy weapons if I can" he stared at the handles and crystals in both his hands.

"Good, go do it Darst, and remember, time is of the essence with the Jiralhanae on their way" he reminded the crimson armoured elite. Darst nodded, and made a sprint to his room in the Atrium to create some weapons of war.

"Jabjab, Yapflop, gather some moles and start working on remaking the Banshee, now!" he ordered the two Grunts.

"Uh yes sir! um...you, you, you, you, you and...you, c'mon, follow us. Oh, and get a few tools as well" Jabjab pointed at the moles of his choice and demanded them to come with the Grunts to the Banshee. They all went on working with the vehicle, and hopefully, they won't screw up anything.

"All right, I need someone to take charge of a large group to design much more stronger armour for everyone than what we have now. Leave out me, Shin, the two Grunts and the two Hunters, don't make any for us. C'mon, I'm sure one of you moles can lead a large group of...yourselves?" Thel asked the entire crowd of furballs. They all scratched their heads, hoping that someone in the crowd would lead them, but no one did raised their hand. Thel facepalmed himself, disappointed that no one would volunteer.

"You got to be kidding me" he mumbled. He jumped off the small stone platform and walked to the cheetah party. Cynder looked at the crowd moles, thinking that if no one of their race was going to do it, you got to do it yourself. She sighed, shaking her head.

"Arbiter, if none of the moles will do it, I might as well take the job, I'll keep an eye on them, choose the designs they'll make and all of that other stuff" Cynder volunteered to do it, pleasing Thel. Even if she's 4 legged and is not able to make armour, at least there is someone willing to take the leadership role.

"All right then Cynder. As a matter of fact, let me know when the designs are done and I'll help choosing which one suits everyone. Don't forget to tell the furballs to make armour for you and Spyro as well, you'd be easy meat for the Brutes if you didn't" Thel advised her.

"I planned on having some anyways" she shrugged her shoulders, making a point. Thel rolled his eyes.

"Alright. You're gonna have to gather a very large group if the number of sets made is going to be done just two days, but I bet you can do that with ease" he suggested. Cynder nodded, turned, and walked towards the mole crowds. She looked back at the Arbiter.

"Arbiter, I'm glad you have your confidence for this city's defence back. I'm sure if we all fight hard enough, we'll come out with our heads still upon our shoulders" she stood by this. Thel could only respond with a weak kind of smile, indicating that he still wasn't convinced. She didn't notice that and made her way towards the crowds.

"Yeah...I hope so" Thel looked down on the ground. Shin started gathering a large group of moles to help him build a Locust walker. He got the numbers in a short time, but he needed a few things to make the large vehicle.

"Ah damn it, Arbiter, we need a lot of metal and a beam weapon of any kind before we get started" he came to Thel.

"Huh...I'm sorry Shin, I don't have any ideas" Thel raised his hands and shrugged the shoulders. Spyro and Cynder overheard them, and the purple dragon knew where plenty of metal was.

"Shin, there's tons of metal at the blacksmith, we're going there now, you could follow us" Spyro offered the elite.

"Yes! thank you, but I still need a beam weapon!" Shin looked around. He then suddenly noticed a focus rifle in the hands of Prowlus. That's exactly what was needed for the Locust.

"That, that focus rifle! that's it!...um, Arbiter, do you think you can spare one weapon?" he turned to the silver armoured Elite. Thel crossed his arms and stared at Shin, intimidating him to make it look like it was going to be a no.

"Go on then" he gave the elite permission. Shin walked over to Prowlus' focus rifle and took it off his hands, angering the cheetah, but he didn't argue.

"Alright dragon, lead the way" Shin insisted Spyro. He walked with Cynder and Shin, with both huge groups of moles, to the blacksmith to design the Locust and armour. Thel though, went in front of the cheetah group. He was their drill sergeant now.

"Alright cats. If you want to use my race's weapons, you're going to have follow my orders. You will do as I say, regardless of the leadership you have right now. That means Mr. red and glorious over here is not in charge...I AM! Don't disobey me, ever, or consider yourself being used as cannon fodder for Brutes, clear?" Thel stared at them. They mumbled for a bit but then answered

"Yes Arbiter" they all said in unison, except for Prowlus. Thel didn't give a damn about that cheetah, and ignored him.

"Hmm, alright then. Follow me outside the city, and keep those weapons in your hands. We don't have enough for everybody so take turns and share. Please follow me to a shooting course outside the city, I don't want to get the crap from the guardians because of idiotic mad cats with plasma weaponry. Hunters, you might as well get back to your posts upon the top of the wall. Get going, now!" he demanded the Hunters, and they did as they were told. As he moved, so did the cheetahs, leaving only the guardians and a few civilian moles left standing there, who moments later, dispersed and went back to their daily routines.

"Terrador, are you actually placing hope in the Arbiter to defend the city?" Cyril asked the green dragon.

"Apparently, he knows more of how to defend against the Jiralhanae more than any of us does...so yeah, I guess so" he said, staring at the Arbiter.

**Sorry for the somewhat long wait for the next chapter, what can I say, I love the weekend.**


	20. Planning goes a long way

**The laptop is finally fixed. It turns out it was a virus, not a mechanical problem. I ain't worried though, the virus was small and not as deadly as some of the laptop crashing virus' are, but it's gone now, and with a new and much improved anti-virus system to help this thing...anyways, let's forget about that and continue with the story, shall we?**

At the encampment though, things started to turn from bad...to the worse. All the Brutes were gathered in the one spot, awaiting for their chieftain to arrive and give out their daily sermon. They were all at the centre, which was pretty much the same spot Arbiter fought them before. There was tons of low growling, as some of them started to get impatient. Most of them were also armed with their usual weapons, varying from spikers and brute shots. Suddenly, a platform started to rise in front the growling Jiralhanae, finally relived to see something happen after at least 30 minutes. The platform was the same one used during the last days of the Covenant war, the same ones used for stationary plasma turrets. Only this time, Chieftain Magnaruckus , guarded by two captain ranked Brutes, and with the Fist of Rukt by his side, in his right hand, were standing on top of the tower, looking down upon the Brute army. The chieftain could only smirk at the size of this force. The captain guards had their arms crossed to make themselves look a bit more fearful and menacing. For a moment, everything was silent, until the deep voice of the chieftain began to leave his mouth.

"My brothers...pack warriors and pack leaders..., this is not our usual sermons like we always have because...I have just received word that the Phantom that delivered the hologram projector to the Sangheili, who were specifically ordered not to fire on them...was destroyed. Our brothers, had no defence against them. They were chased, and hunted down larger winged beasts, the same ones that attacked our base last night, only bigger. This is a sign my brothers, that neither the Sangheili, or those freak flyers have honour! They said once, during our campaign in the covenant, that the elites only fire upon us if we fire upon them. Our Phantom did no such thing, and that crew died horrible, miserable deaths! BY FREAK FLYERS!" Magnaruckus' voice echoed throughout the entire encampment, but the Jiralhanae didn't fear it this time. Instead, only anger could fill that gap. Most of them exposed their teeth and gums, expressing their hatred for the elites and dragons.

"They killed our brethren when they posed no threat to them!" one of the crowd members shouted out. Most of the ones around that one Brute started roaring with anger and fury.

"Exactly, my brothers. The elites do not have honour at all. They lie about it, just to trick us into letting our guard down, then they stab you in the back, just like they did to our noble prophets! and those winged creatures are just as bad!" Magnaruckus raised his hammer into the air, with one hand, symbolising his dominance. Some Brutes even raised their arms into the air, hailing their chieftain.

"Magnaruckus speaks the truth! the elites have no honour!" another Brute shouted out with pride. Now most of the encampment was going off. Hundreds of Brutes, cheering, roaring, growling, all caused by one single chieftain. But to the elites, it is Magnaruckus who speaks the lies.

"Yes, YES, my brothers! So, for this unholy act made by the elites, two days from now, when the dawn rises, our forces will be at their front doors. We will crush all resistance that will stand before us! The elites! the grunts! the traitorous hunters! the furballs and yes, even the freak flyers! For now, we shall pack up our entire base. My most loyal followers will lead our troops, our packs, our vehicles! the Scarab will stay on 'The Prophet's Vengeance', but the ship will be cloaked, so we can get the jump on the Sangheili and their weak and pathetic force! If they do prove to be a strong force to reckon with, our might Scarab will tear them apart and once the battle comes to a close...our great and noble Cruiser will glass them into OBLIVION!" the chieftain shouted with an iron fist. The captains made no movement to prove their loyalty to Magnaruckus that they're not your usual barbarian Jiralhanae. Now the entire encampment acted like total, overzealous fanatics. They were all doing the same thing. There was barbaric noises all through the place, even reaching miles. Some wildlife creatures also heard the Brutes noise shouting and roaring. They all ran away in panic as some Banshees patrolled around the perimeter, on high alert, not taking any chances without having someone to defend the place from uninvited guests...like last time.

"So my warriors. Prepare to pack up the entire base. Our battle with the Sangheili begin in two days! No more will they be able to run and hide like cowards. In two days; WE DESTROY THE SANGHEILI RESISTANCE!" Magnaruckus raised his hammer into the air again, this time, with two hands gripping the handle. The overzealous chanting continued.

The Brutes dispersed and started packing up everything they've settled. They got many Phantom dropships to protect the Scarab whilst it used the 4 boosters under its body mass to lift itself on the Cruiser. It was very slow and very vulnerable, and the Brutes wanted this done faster.

"Grr, get 3 Phantoms to push it from under the Scarab's mass! we have to get it back on the Cruiser" A captain ordered from the ground. As expected, the 3 Phantom's overwatching the Scarab flew under the body of the walker. They all collided with the mechanized machine. Increasing the strength in engine cores, the hover ability from the craft increased the walker's speed to board the 'Prophet's Vengeance'.

On the ground though, the Jiralhanae were deploying their vehicles out of their garages.

"We have to make room for our ground troops to get ready! line the vehicles outside the base, and tell them NOT to road kill anyone, I really don't want to stress that out!" a normal war chieftain with a fuel rod gun ordered a Brute pack, pointing at some Wraith tanks that are passing by.

"Yes pack master" a Brute minor went to do his job with the rest of his pack, consisting of 3 other minors. Unfortunately, before he was able to tell the Wraith drivers where to go, a Chopper accidently sped across the area and completely ran over that minor, chopping him into tiny pieces and tons of Brute blood came out of the blades, with body parts flaying around.

"Oh, that ruined my day" the Chopper driver mumbled and stopped his vehicle. The other 3 Brutes narrowly avoided the same fate, as they got themselves up to look at what remains of their brother. Body pieces of arms and legs, and blood stains all that remained of him.

"Uh...I guess I'll tell the Wraith drivers to not run anyone over...but Its clear the message also needs to go to the Chopper drivers" another minor decided.

"Argh, by the Prophets!" the war chieftain faceplamed himself, disappointed by the fact that some Brutes...are just complete tools.

Magnaruckus was not troubled by this event and just continued to watch the entire encampment mobilize into one whole force. His arms were crossed, just for something to do. His loyal captain guards held the Fist of Rukt for their chieftain, but they were also infected with the 'tool' virus.

"I shall hold it for my chieftain!" one of them pulled the hammer towards himself, but the other continued to keep hold of it.

"No, I will, the chieftain trusts me more!" the other pulled it over to him, and the argument continued. Magnaruckus just ignored the Brutes pathetic display of foolishness and looked at the Seraphs that flew over the base in one whole horizontal line, leaving a plasma engine trail behind them.

"I will let my army deal with the Sangheili's resistance...but the Arbiter and the black and purple freak flyers are mine to deal with" he grumbled with and anger and hatred, as well as a ton of fury.

Meanwhile, at the front of the city...

"And fire!" Thel ordered the cheetahs, who were wielding the advanced weapons. All of them fired at one giant rock, with the combined might of a focus rifle, a concussion rifle, 2 beam rifles and the 3 plasma rifles.

The rock was severely damaged, leaving some of the bottom piece of it and plasma burns. Everything else was small pieces on the ground. Prowlus held the concussion rifle, which he could barely withstand the back blast from, Hunter was holding one of the beam rifles, and Meadow was only holding a normal plasma rifle. Some others were holding the other weapons except for the plasma launcher, which Thel was carrying on his back. Even though some of them get to hold these powerful weapons, some cheetahs had to watch their friends from afar, because there just wasn't enough guns for everyone.

"Agh, this stupid thing is really starting to annoy me, it pushes me back every time I fire it!" Prowlus complained, staring at Thel.

"Hey, I told you that if you were gonna use the concussion rifle, you would need the strength to withstand its recoil. It's one of the reasons why I'm not letting anyone use the plasma launcher, you'd probably end up falling on your bottom shooting 4 of those grenades anyway. Now shut up and stop whining, you'll get use to it" Thel demanded firmly. The stubborn cheetah growled furiously, having to take orders from another creature that is not from this planet must really tip Prowlus off.

"This is a waste of time" the red furred cheetah grumbled, but the Arbiter heard it. Shaking his head, he stomped over to Prowlus' position, which was on the far end of the firing line. Some of the other cats let him pass, confronting Prowlus face to face.

"If this is a waste of time, how come you're still here then?" he gulped at this question. He didn't really want to know how to use them, he just wanted these weapons for himself. That wasn't happening.

"I'm not letting you keep these dangerous things unless you know how to use them, and that goes for all of you!" Arbiter turned his attention to the entire group. They mostly just either looked around or bowed down their heads in fear. Not Hunter though. He understood why the Sangheili was unhappy with the them. Thel wiped his eyes out of tiredness.

"(sigh) No one will get to keep these things unless you learn to use them. I know it sounds unfair to all of you, but my race has to do the same thing back on my world. We cannot be allowed to use our swords unless we learn how to wield them properly, without cutting our own arms off...once again, do I make myself clear?" he eyed them all, specifically on Hunter and Prowlus.

"Yes, Arbiter" they all understood the elite leader, but the red furred cheetah didn't say one word.

"Ok then. Just take in turns firing them with the others over there. I want everyone to be prepared for the attack being made by the Brutes. So, just take turns firing over there, in those bushes. I'll be back in a minute. Please don't kill each other doing it!" Thel warned them.

He made his way back to the enormous city gates, which were open just in case anyone wants to come back into Warfang. The cheetahs did as they were told and traded with each other the weapons, except the most stubborn of them all who wasn't giving any of his people the all powerful concussion rifle, a plasma explosive firing launcher that can be held like an assault rifle, firing 6 shots before reloading a revolver like magazine into it. Luckily, this particular rifle only needs to recharge every 5 seconds before firing another 6 shots.

"Please sire, can I just use it for a minute, as the Arbiter said, everyone needs to learn how to use them and you're disobeying that rule!" a cheetah in blue clothing asked Prowlus for the rifle, but to no avail, did he get the weapon.

"I said no! I do not care if that double jawed monstrosity says so, they already took a couple weapons out of our salvage, I'm not losing this one! Stay away damn it" Prowlus then aimed the concussion rifle at his the blue clothed cat, causing him to back away in fear. Almost everyone gasped at the sight of the terrible weapon aiming at them.

"Just stay away from me" Prowlus kept them in the rifle's short range. The most shocked out of them all was Hunter. Never in his life he saw the cheetah leader threaten his own villagers, let alone, with advanced alien weaponry.

"Chief Prowlus, have you gone mad with power? the elites let you have the damn thing and you point it at us? Why? Why are you acting like this?" Hunter questioned his own chief. Prowlus then slowly went to aim at Hunter. The brave cheetah raised his hands slowly to show he was not a threat towards him.

"Prowlus...put...the gun...down" he tried to ask the cheetah chief nicely.

"Hunter...you're one of my best warriors in the village...don't make me hurt you" Prowlus warned his most trusted friend. Hunter slowly walked towards Prowlus with the concussion rifle still pointed at him. Prowlus had a choice. Let Hunter come near him, see what happens or shoot and kill his own friend.

"Prowlus...let me help you, my friend. You don't have to shoot anybody, it's the Brutes who we have to stop, you know that" he tried convincing Prowlus.

The cheetah leader started to hesitate. He was shaking his weapon in horror. It felt like something was telling him to shoot Hunter, but he resisted. When Hunter got in range of Prowlus, he placed his left paw on top of the rifle, making the chief lower his weapon. Everyone started to sigh in relief, as the threat started to simmer down.

"I-I'm sorry Hunter. I don't what overcame me to do that" the red clothed cheetah stuttered.

"It's ok friend. I promise not to tell Arbiter about this" Hunter promised and patted him on the back.

"Thank you. I'll never forget it" Prowlus bowed his head down in shame.

In the city, Thel marched his way to the armoury. Shin and some moles were expected to be working on the Locust. He moved as quick as he could to get to the Atrium. Passing some familiar buildings to him, he started to get closer and closer to massive stone structure. He finally got on the main path that leads to the entrance to the Atrium, but then he spotted moles working on a large metal figure. Shin was placing something under the metal beast.

"Hm? Don't tell me they've already done the legs?" Thel raised a brow. How could they already get the legs done that quickly? it was noticeable that the rest of the body wasn't on, the legs were the only thing, steel coloured, original iron metal.

"Better see if things are on schedule then" the Arbiter decided. He continued his less than human walk towards Shin's project. He was definitely placing something under the 4 legged monster. The moles were working on the body, hopefully, Shin showed them something to make them build what a Locust should look like. The blue armoured elite was on his back trying to get whatever onto the supposed Locust. Thel came up to him and kicked Shin's legs to grab his attention.

"Ow! what is gods places was that for m-m-mo...Arbiter, uh, I didn't expect you to come by" Shin though it was a mole that kicked. Obviously, he was wrong. Crossing his arms, Thel wanted to know what was going on.

"Alright Tarscar, how the hell did you get legs done already and what are you doing under this thing exactly?" Thel slowly shrugging his shoulders whilst asking the question. Shin grunted as he pushed himself away from the half constructed Locust. Getting up, he politely replied back.

"Well, to answer the first one, a lot of moles decided to help out once I drew them a design of the original Locust and it seemed to somewhat intrigue most of them to help. They've never seen a walking vehicle, let alone a tank. So, they want to help out as best they can. We got most of the metal from the armoury and some of the best of it from the blacksmith. The moles there politely gave us that" Shin explained some of the Locust main origins of its material. It made sense to Thel.

"Hmm, all right then. Then what were you putting under the damn thing?" Thel pointed out to under the Locust.

"Remember the focus rifle I needed? well come have a look at this" Shin made his superior look under the Locust. Arbiter noticed the rifle was on strong hinges, connected to the rest of the vehicle. Shin grabbed the weapon to twist and turn it.

"You see here, once the body is made, this weapon will aim where the head is pointing, the same exact attribute the original Locusts used to have. Thanks to Darst who gave me some of that plasma material, the weapon has been upgraded to have a more powerful beam to penetrate through air vehicle armour, not just infantry" Shin continued to move the weapon. Thel can see the focus rifle's upgrade. The long beak of the weapon emitted a powerful purple glow, really not what a normal focus rifle should do.

"Heh, that's actually quite smart Shin, I'm surprised this was even achievable" Thel congratulated Shin for this feat. Suddenly, an unfortunate thought came upon the designer of the Locust.

"Arbiter, please come over here" Shin begged the Arbiter to come away from the furballs. Confused by this, he decided to go with it and follow his friend. They went into an alley, where things could be a little more private.

"Listen Thel, we have enough metal to complete the Locust, but we don't even have a power source to control and use the walker. In short, it's just an empty shell with a freaking beam gun on the front of it" Shin was quite concerned with this problem. A small reactor was always used to power the Locust walker. No reactor, no power, no mobile Locust. Arbiter sighed, having no ideas of how to overcome this obstacle.

"Ung...that's indeed unfortunate. Is there anything in this city that can be used instead of a reactor?" he asked Shin, but the elite could only shake his head.

"No, there is nothing that can power this monstrosity. We need a different power source to complete it, but for now, we have nothing" Shin looked back at the legs of the half complete Locust. Thel could only come up with one thing.

"Continue to build the rest of it Shin. We can discuss about the power to the Locust later. For now, complete the walker. Send someone to tell me when it's finished and remember Tarscar; the Brutes are coming, and we need every available resource at our disposal to stop them with" he warned Shin. Tarscar bowed his head down in respect to the Arbiter.

"Good day Arbiter" Shin kindly departed, continuing his work on the body.

"You too friend" Thel nodded and left Shin and the moles to complete their project.

At the city walls, the moles and grunts were working on remaking the Banshee. So far, not fatalities have been made and no accidents have been caused. In fact, their work has gone unexpectedly well. They were all using different tools to get the job done, ranging from hammers and a lent energy sword given by Darst. The Hunters were also helping, but mostly, they still kept overwatch for any unexpected visitors, though, they did get a couple of chuckles from the grunts attempts to complete the sleeker Banshee. Yapflop was holding the energy sword with two hands in order melt some of the metal to get the sleek design made. He was standing on top of the attack craft, hoping he would not fall off. Jabjab was in the cockpit, trying to activate the Banshee every now and then, hoping it'd still work, even after their 'modding' abilities.

"All righty, let's see what happens" he slammed on the button to activate the Banshee. In a moment's notice, the Banshee activated and took off immediately without caution. Yapflop went screaming as the Banshee escaped his feet and sent him flying into the air.

"AAAGGGHHH! OOF!" he crashed into the ground hard, landing inside the city walls. Jabjab was in an even worst position. He was flying the Banshee. No grunt in history has ever flown a Banshee.

"AGH! HOW DO I CONTROL THIS THING?" he screamed. The aircraft zigzagged, evaded, barrel rolled and did all sorts of other tricks whilst Jabjab tried fly it. The hunters and moles watched in amazement and awe. The first ever grunt to fly a Banshee and he hasn't even crashed...yet. He suddenly flew above the city buildings. He was accidently flying lower and lower onto the main pathway to the Atrium. Arbiter looked up and spotted the Banshee heading straight for him.

"ARBITER, GET OUT OF THE WAY!" Jabjab shouted. Thel's mandibles dropped in shock. The sight of the Banshee heading straight for him should have scared him but the sound of the grunt's voice overshadowed all this.

"You've got to be kidding me..." he mumbled lightly.

**Hmm, this doesn't seem to be my best chapter, but not my worst. review, comment, all that, and have a nice day. **

**P.S: to Invader jrek, i used my mum's computer to put up that delay thing, not my laptop. forget about it now.**


	21. Damn it Jabjab!

"OH CRAP, I DON'T WANT TO KILL ARBITER, I'M SUPPOSED TO ONE DAY KILL YAPFLOP! NOOOOO!" Jabjab released controls and covered his eyes, not wanting to see elite bits all over the place. The Banshee was still on a direct path towards Thel. Taking a few steps back, Arbiter prepared to do something drastic in order to stop the rogue attack craft. As it got even closer, he got into a crouching position, preparing to pounce onto it.

"All right, c'mon then, let's see what you got!" he dared the covenant craft. It's piercing engine noises echoed through the street, causing some moles to look outside their business stores to see a grunt flying a Banshee that's going to ram into the Arbiter. When it got into his range, Thel Vadam pounced onto the right wing of the craft before it was able to splatter into him. If it did, the mighty Arbiter would be a mighty road kill...from an aircraft.

"Argh! bloody grunts! you give them a job, AND THEY TRY TO KILL YOU FOR IT!" Thel was barely holding onto the left wing of the aircraft. It climbed up towards the clouds, once Arbiter grabbed hold of it.

The inhabitants of the city looked up at this spectacle. The Banshee was soon going to get way to high and the fall will be fatal, but Arbiter took no chances. Whilst being battered by the force of the wind caused by the Banshee's speed, Thel began to pull himself towards the body of it.

"I think I killed him...jeez!" Jabjab still didn't uncover his eyes, so he didn't know the Arbiter was holding on tightly and even didn't know the fact that they were more than 15,000 feet in the air.

The strong willed Thel was not going to let height get the best of him. He released one hand to grab onto a part of the body. He took the risk of getting his other hand to fully hold on. Suddenly, the Banshee started spinning out of control, while it was still ascending.

"OH, I DON'T FEEL SO GOOD!" he felt like he was going to throw up from all this spinning. He was about to upchuck with the throbbing leftovers of a meal coming about to out of his gapping mouth, but he swallowed down and had was left with a disgusted taste in his throat.

"Blargh! Gargh!...that didn't go down well!" he remarked the unwanted taste in his mouth.

This event has caught almost everyone's attention now. They were all looking up in the sky, watching what could happen to Arbiter, Jabjab and the Banshee. The hunters didn't laugh at this. Instead, they stood there watching the moment unfold, like living statues. Yapflop recovered from his fall and did the same thing everyone else was doing, looking up in the sky, watching Thel and Jabjab go through this traumatizing experience. This even caught Shin's eyes, gasping at the situation the two were in. Shock, awe, surprise and stun overshadowed the city.

"Is this part of the sangheili's plan?" a mole asked his friend at Shin's area.

"If it is, can it be any more productive?" the other replied back

"Hmm, maybe" the first mole stroked his chin, thinking if this really is going to help the fight the Brutes...really?

In the air, Arbiter was getting sick and tired of going higher. Anymore altitude that could be gained will send both him and Jabjab out of the atmosphere and into the depths of space.

"Ah, what the hell, the grunt almost killed me anyway" Thel grumbled. He grabbed the back of the Banshee to open the cockpit of it, revealing little Jabjab, who uncovered his eyes to see why the driving seat was so chilly. He saw the supposed dead Arbiter right in front of him.

"Arbiter! you're ali-" the green armoured grunt was cut off by Thel grabbing his left leg.

"You runt, I put you in charge of something and you try to kill me, you might as well spend the last of your hours in freefall. Out of the Banshee!" Thel demanded and pulled Jabjab out of the cockpit and sending him completely into the air.

"AAAAGGHHH! WHYYYYYYYYYY?" Jabjab's screaming voice faded as he descended through the clouds, disappearing from Thel's sight.

"Eh, somebody's bound to catch him" he thought. Vadam regained controls of the Banshee and finally got it to stop spinning.

"Phew! thank the lords that's over...now, I wonder how that grunt will survive a fall from this height?" Thel wondered. He literally hijacked and threw out Jabjab, probably causing his death, but hasn't grunts survived these kind of things with an idiocy beyond comprehension?

"I might as well check to see if he survives, if he doesn't, well...he's dead, but if he does somehow, he's still in big trouble for what he tried to do" Thel had high hopes that Jabjab would survive, it's a fact, grunts can survive almost anything, except for being shot at. Yapflop has survived numerous falls that could potentially kill a human or an elite, but yet, the orange grunt has survived all those, who's to say Jabjab can't. Arbiter descended the Banshee through the clouds, trying to get back to ground level in one piece. Jabjab though, was going to get back to the ground much faster.

"WHY DID HE DO THAT? I DIDN'T MEAN TO RAM INTO HIM...AAAGGGHHH!" the little green grunt kept on screaming throughout his fall. His voice echoed down to the city, and everyone could hear him.

"Who's making that racket?" an old mole demanded to know. He looked up to see a little dot falling through the air, out of the clouds. Jabjab was going to crash into the city, and with enough force, there would be nothing left of him in the end.

"OH GOD NOOOOOO!" he yelled.

"Hey, that's a grunt up there, he will die from that level of height!" Shin shouted out. The crowds began to be concerned. The screaming eventually reached Spyro and Cynder, who were keeping an eye on the moles who were working on armour sets, in the blacksmith, for everyone. This room was quite dark, but lit up by fires and other small hot areas. Jabjab's screaming then caught the young dragon's attention.

"What the? what's going on out there?" Spyro opened the door to look outside. He saw a few moles looking up in the sky, watching the grunt fall to his death. Cynder also came out and noticed the little green grunt. He was going to crash into where they are. He was right above the blacksmith.

"SOMEBODY SAVE ME!" the green grunt screamed. Cynder's eyes widened in shock.

"Is it just me, or is there a grunt falling through the air?" she was at a loss for words, stunned to see a grunt high in the air

"PLEASE! I DON'T WANT TO DIEEEEEEE!" he was now out of the clouds and fully visible to everyone on the ground. Even the cheetahs noticed and they too were just as stunned.

"When grunts fly..." Meadow mumbled.

"He isn't flying, he's falling damn it! Somebody help him!" Hunter shouted out. Looking back at Jabjab, it was apparent that Thel was wrong. He won't survive the fall. Someone had to save him, but does anyone have the ability to save Jabjab and carry his weight all the way down?

"Ung, I'm going to regret this" Cynder grumbled. She took off into the air and went to save Jabjab herself.

"Don't kill yourself trying to save him Cyn" Spyro warned her, but she didn't hear him.

Trying to predict Jabjab's speed, Cynder increased her height to just get below Jabjab's course of falling. She u-turned around and increased her speed using her wings. She was getting considerably closer to Jabjab. Everyone suddenly knew what Cynder was doing, she was going to try and catch Jabjab in mid-air.

"NOOOOOOOOO, AAAGGHHH-OOF!" Jabjab's screaming was cut off when Cynder grabbed him with her two front paws, not extending her claws otherwise, hurting the grunt. She grunted when the black dragoness felt his weight. Unlike what the elites think, Jabjab was considerably heavy, almost as heavy as Spyro when she carried him.

"Argh, your freaking heavy!" she could hardly keep hold of the little grunt. Her balance in the air almost went out of control from the weight Cynder was carrying.

"Agh! agh...uh...who...huh? you?" Jabjab opened his eyes to see he was in the arms of the dragoness, barely holding him.

"Yes, me! hold onto my neck, It feels like you're going to slip out of my paws!" she told Jabjab. In order to keep his life, the grunt did as he was told and held onto Cynder's neck with his grunty arms, but this meant having his face right against her chest. At first, he thought it would be a bit disgusting having his face against another creature, but apparently, he kinda liked it.

"Mmm, you're chest is so nice and warm" he complemented her and snuggled against it whilst she was carrying him back down, almost falling asleep. She shook her head and rolled her eyes in annoyance. His skin and mask felt cold on her magenta chest but that's probably why he snuggled in...or it's just the cold air.

"Blacky caught Jabjab, YAYYYY!" Yapflop cheered and jumped for joy. The hunters were kinda actually hoping that Jabjab was going to die, it would have been one less grunt to worry about but they think some of Cynder's potential might have gone to waste by saving him. They could grumble, unhappy that Jabjab is still alive.

"Good job dragoness, brilliantly executed!" Shin happily commented on Cynder's unexpected rescue mission, surprised to see that she rescued the grunt when no one else tried to. Tarscar ran to where Cynder was supposedly going to land.

Spyro was so proud of her. Cynder was starting to become the saviour of these worldly beings. She stopped the Brutes from killing Arbiter, carried the purple dragon to the forest whilst he was injured and just now, saving an impudent grunt's life. He couldn't be any more happy for her. Cynder was landing back at the blacksmiths. She gently placed the grunt on the ground before landing herself. She sighed in relief, happy that she doesn't have to carry Jabjab's weight anymore, which hurt her back. Jabjab though, was unhappy that he couldn't feel that warmth from her heart anymore, instead, he was freezing his backpack off.

"Aww! did the trip have to end so quickly?" he moaned.

"Hey, you were killing my back. For something as small as the moles, you're very heavy. Aw, jeez, this is going to hurt for a bit" she slowly went laid down next to a wall of the building. She groaned, desperate to get a little rest from the flight. Cynder sighed and rested her head against the wall, even if it's made of hard stone. Spyro came to his dragoness, laying down next to her and nuzzling around her cheeks.

"Are you alright?" he was concerned for her. She moved strangely since her back hurt so there was a reason for him to be worried.

"Yeah, I'm good. I never thought that grunts would be so heavy like that but c'mon, he must be fat under that armour" she quietly insulted Jabjab, but he didn't hear her thankfully. Just then, Sparx decided to join the young dragons, wondering what was all the screaming about.

"Ok, what...the heck, was all that yelling about, I could hardly get any sleep from it, oh great, now what's happened to the princess of darkness?" Sparx noticed the state Cynder was in. She shook her head, annoyed that Sparx never saw what she just did.

"(sigh) I suppose you missed it then?" Spyro asked the dragonfly, unhappy that the idiot didn't what it was.

"(mimicking Spyro's sighing) YEA! so, what was it?" Sparx repeated his question and crossing his arms at the same time.

"Ung. All right then. Somehow, Jabjab was in the air, falling to his death. No one was going to save him so I took the liberty and saved his behind. I caught him in mid air and he was very heavy to deal with, I had absolutely no idea he would carry that much weight" Cynder gave Sparx the short version of the event. Sparx raised a brow. That must've cleared things up.

"So the screaming was from that guy?...seriously?" Sparx thought. He didn't want to believe that a creature that size would have a voice so loud, it could rival the war cries of enemies. But then again, he was much smaller than the grunt and he has a loud voice too, so it might make sense.

"Right..." Sparx pretended to be serious. Shin arrived moments after the conversation, noticing the grunt was just fine from his experience.

"Jabjab, are ok? have you been hurt?" Shin was quite worried for the grunt, unlike what most creatures think about them.

"Yeah, I'm good. If it wasn't for Bla-I mean...I still can't remember her name, Cundrer, uh...Cyaster, grr, damn it!" Jabjab stomped his right grunty foot.

"Good. Come here then, I need to speak with both you and the dragoness" Shin firmly ordered the grunt. Jabjab got up and followed Tarscar to Cynder. The dragons looked up to meet Shin eye to eye. They both could see the happy expression in the elite's face.

"Shin?" Cynder kindly greeted him.

"Cynder, I'm so pleased that you were able to rescue our grunt from the fall. Although we've seen grunts survive some attacks, besides getting stabbed and shot at, there was no chance that little Jabjab here would be alive at all right now, thanks to you. I'm sure Thel would be pleased that you made this act dragoness" Shin congratulated her. Cynder only respond with a friendly smile.

"Thanks Shin, means a lot to me" she kindly responded.

"Uh, elite, Now that you mention Arbiter, would you like to know how was falling in the first place?" Jabjab asked Shin.

"Of course I would! So how did you?" Shin carefully listened. Cynder, Spyro and Sparx was also intrigued.

Yapflop then arrived right behind Tarscar and Jabjab but ignoring what the green armoured grunt was going to say. Suddenly, everything was cut off by the sound of a Banshee. Everyone turned to see the half sleek Banshee landing gracefully on the ground. The hatch of the cockpit opened to reveal that Thel was piloting it. Shin was confused. Wasn't that the same Banshee Jabjab, Yapflop and some moles were working on to make it more sleeker and more of a capable fighter?

"Arbiter, how come you were driving that thing?" Shin walked up in front of Thel. Vadam looked over Shin's left shoulder to see the grunt he threw out of the Banshee was still alive. Not surprised, he looked back at Tarscar.

"I see Jabjab survived the fall?" Thel pointed out the obvious.

"Yes but with no disrespect, how were able to pilot that thing if the grunts and moles were working on it?" Shin asked, until Jabjab intervened.

"He threw me out of the Banshee, when we were both high in the air" Jabjab gave out a small piece of the event. Shin and Cynder's eyes widened with huge shock.

**Decided to put this out, since it was the weekend. It could have been longer, but, ah, what the hell. This ain't one of my best chapters, come to think of it, some of these parts of the story I particularly have no interest but I'll do them anyway. Hope you enjoyed, please review and as always...have a nice day**


	22. Genocidal rediscovery

"You...you threw our own grunt out of the Banshee? ARE YOU INSANE?" Shin was horrified by the thought. The Arbiter, throwing little Jabjab out of the covenant attack craft.

"Hey, haven't you seen them? they survive most things that a normal being would survive, I mean have a look at the orange one. I seen him survive being choked to death, by me might I add, and I seen him survive some falls that would instantly kill us. It was also a pretty good laugh too" Thel grinned, but this didn't amuse Shin at all.

"You idiot, I know Yapflop survived some impossible physics, but he was injured during those process'. Jabjab would have been killed for what you done, which I consider what Brutes would do Thel Vadam" Tarscar was definitely angry with Arbiter. Even though Shin would be punished for this kind of attitude towards a superior officer, but he has every right to shout at him. Thel though, had a reason.

"Don't call me an idiot if the grunt tried to ram into me with the damn ship! He's the reason I was involved in the whole thing. He almost splattered me all over the Banshee if I hadn't jumped onto it. He even drove the thing high in the sky and I got almost upchucked when it started spinning itself. In reality, if he run into me, it wouldn't have happened" Thel spoke his reason for this outrage. Shin turned to Jabjab, with a stunned face.

"Is this true?" the blue armoured elite asked him. Suddenly, Jabjab started shaking, scared that he's in trouble too.

"Uh, well, um...It was an accident! I'm sorry, I couldn't control it, please don't hurt me, I didn't mean to do it!" Jabjab pleaded. He was on his knees begging for mercy after what he done to Arbiter, but not all blame must fall upon him.

"Unggoy, I'm quite disappointed that you even activated the Banshee, but Arbiter, throwing one of our allies out of an aircraft is strictly unforgivable, even for you" Shin was mad at both of them, looking at the two individuals. Cynder could only watch, not interfering Sangheili and Unggoy business.

"Alright then. Give me a second with the grunt" Thel walked past Shin and crouched down to Jabjab's height, staring face to face with him. Thel was very intimidating to Jabjab, fearing what an elite could do to a grunt. His little forehead was releasing beads of sweat, afraid, scared, an urge to run away.

"Jabjab, please forgive me for what I did to you. What I did was wrong. I shall let you off with the whole ramming me with the Banshee thing, I hope you'll do the same with me. So what do you say Jabjab, we're good?" Thel raised his right hand to shake Jabjab's. The little green armoured grunt thought for a moment. He just wanted this whole thing to end right now so he made a good decision. He raised a claw hand to shake Thel's hand.

"Yeah Arbiter, we're good. Thanks for letting me off this time" he was so relieved to be let off the leash for now. Arbiter smirked, happy that this whole mishap has ended.

"Good, good" Thel nodded.

"There we go, it's over now, in the past, forget about it now" Shin suggested, waving his arms around to make his point. Thel stood back up in front of Tarscar, with a firm expression on his face.

"It is Shin...now you had your turn at being the boss, now give the title back to me and get back to your job at making that damn Locust" Thel regained his boss act, as Shin kinda took it away from the Arbiter when he got out of the Banshee.

"(sigh) Yes Arbiter" Shin slinked away from the area. He acted like a leader for a good few minutes, but Thel just took it right out of him. The elite Arbiter huffed and smiled, amused to see Shin in that state after being told off by him like a father telling off his child for insubordination.

"Well, I'm glad that's over and done with Thel" Cynder broke the silence, grabbing Thel's attention. Jabjab also turned to her. She was still laying there with Spyro and Sparx was still hovering around them with arms crossed.

"Yeah, heh! I thought you would've punished him for trying to tell you what to do, but it seems elites can just get soft these days" Sparx made a small smart ass comment, but nevertheless, Arbiter was not intimidated by it.

"Hey, I can always not be soft and crush you into a mushy ball glow stick, I don't punish other members of my race for punishing me, even if I'm a higher rank. He was right anyway. Still, I'd like to know how the hell you survived young Jabjab?" Thel turned to Jabjab, wondering how he fell from 20,000 feet and live.

"Oh yeah, Cystra...Cyandeer, oh for god's sake! what is your name black creature!" Jabjab still couldn't remember Cynder's name. She shook her head, annoyed by the green armoured grunt.

"Its Cynder you tool. I caught him whilst he was falling. No one else was going to help him so I decided to do it myself. He's a heavy one too, killed my back, Ung!" the dragoness felt some small pain in her spine, still trying to heal from catching the grunt. Thel was quite surprised by this. First she saved him from the Brutes, with Spyro's help, carried the purple dragon to the forest in his time of need and just recently, caught Jabjab in midair. It's like she was doing all the rescue work around here.

"Cynder, I never expected you to save one of our weakest members of our resistance, what made you save little Jabjab here?" Thel asked her whilst patting Jabjab on the head, who found that quite annoying, thanks to his somewhat cute and small stature.

"I don't know, no one else was going to help him so I decided to do it myself" that was Cynder's only response, but Thel wasn't convinced enough.

"No, no, no, you have never really interacted with Jabjab before, heck, he has never really taken the interest to talk to you. In short, you could have let him die, but you made the right decision in saving him. No, it's something else" Arbiter knew she was hiding something. She saved two members of the Sangheili resistance in the city, a leader and a pawn of it.

It's true. Something in her mind told her to save these other worldly beings. A voice in head, telling her to do the right thing, even if she has only known them for a few days, she wanted to help them out as best she can, especially if it means risking her own life. These were almost the same kind of feelings and emotions that made her help Spyro through their war against the dark forces. It was a known fact to her. She will do whatever it takes to protect the ones she cares for, including the Sangheili resistance.

"Thel...you're right. Something told me to save Jabjab, told me to get you out of the Brute encampment. I don't want anything bad to happen to you or the others. I've done things in my past that I'm not proud of and I will regret it for the rest of my life. If I'm going to die one day, I want to protect the lives I once hurt and destroyed. I still can't get rid of that thought" Cynder slowly bowed her head down, looking like she was going to release a few tears, remembering images from her times as the terror of the skies. It has scarred her for the rest of her life. Spyro couldn't stand watching her in that state and tried to comfort her, placing a wing over her back.

"Cyn, you know it's all in the past, you never had the chance to have a normal life, remember that Malefor controlled you, you know that" the purple dragon tried cheering her up, but it was no use.

"That still doesn't make up for the fact that I killed thousands upon thousands in some kind of genocidal massacre of a campaign Spyro! I don't deserve to live for what I've done!" the young dragoness voice arose. She hated herself from doing all those awful things in the past when Spyro knows it wasn't her fault and from what Arbiter heard about it, he knows it isn't her fault either.

"Don't you dare say that! You have plenty to live for!" Arbiter intervened. He also wasn't going to let her sorrow get the best of her, but still, she resisted the truth.

"No Arbiter, I don't. Besides, you have never experienced what happened to me, how would you know? how?" she stood up, not letting the pain in her back stop her, in fact, she ignored it. Thel stopped right there. He wanted to shout at her but couldn't sum up the courage to do it. He backed away from her.

Although he never experienced killing his own race in a genocidal campaign, he has seen his race get ripped apart by Brutes and other creatures that have a grudge against the Sangheili. It is quite unknown if they too were also on the verge of extinction and it wouldn't surprise him. He was a little hurt when she said that, and it's not that easy to hurt Thel from inside.

"I...but I..." he didn't know how to respond to her now, knowing she pained him right there, taking even a few more steps back. Spyro knows that Thel has been hit in the mind and hearts hard.

"Cynder!" Spyro was now getting a little bit furious with her. Jabjab and Sparx could only watch the moment unfold, both pair of eyes widened from what they were hearing. Even they didn't know what to say, but they also didn't want to attract attention.

"Uh...I think I'll get back to work on the Banshee..." Jabjab slowly walked away from the argument, leaving Sparx by himself.

"Yeah, you do that" the dragonfly responded with a low voice.

Thel only stared at the dragoness, saddened, shocked, hurt by what she said. The black dragoness had a few tears coming down her cheeks. She was the most destroyed of the group.

"Forget it, don't answer that Thel, you wouldn't know. I need to be by myself for a while" she suggested to herself and took off, leaving Spyro and Arbiter in the dust.

"Cynder! where are you going?" the purple dragon shouted out to her, but the female ignored him and continued her flight, out of the city walls, where its most dangerous, especially at the coming dusk. Arbiter didn't watch her go. He only thought about what the dragoness said to him. He couldn't shake it off.

"CYNDER!" Spyro cried out to her, but to no avail did she hear him. She ran away from them. Since Cynder is far outside the city walls now, anything could happen to her...and the largest oncoming threat might be involved.

**I'm so sorry if the chapters are getting smaller, but I do have other stuff to do, I'm just keeping you updated, ok? all right, Annihilator 78 out.**


	23. We have to find her

Cynder flew far from the city, passing many forests from being so high in the sky, not caring what could be out here. The tears filled up in her eyes and were released in mid air. She couldn't withstand the images from being the evil beast she used to be. Poor Cynder couldn't stop thinking about it. Now, she has ran away from her friends and allies and has flown far away from protection. She shook off her tears, trying to stay on her current course through the air, even though the young dragoness didn't know where she was going. Descending a for a bit, she looked around to see if anyone was following her, friendly or not. With nothing in sight, Cynder continued her journey into the unknown, thinking about what she just done.

"(sniffs) He never knew (sniff) what I experienced! what the hell does he know?" her crying has left her with blocked nose, sniffing up to keep the gross stuff inside, but that's not what was on her mind.

"I left them all; Sparx, Hunter, Shin, Darst, the guardians...Spyro...you deserve a better mate then me, you deserve one that hasn't killed their own race and taken orders from the Dark master himself. (sobs) I'd be a terrible mother...a hatchling of mine would hate me if they'd ever find out that I killed some of our own race" she despised herself.

With the act that Cynder has committed, she thought that her relationship with Spyro was officially over. Now, without him and the safety of the city, the dragoness is vulnerable to anything that tries to kill her. Grublins, dark creatures, even the Brutes. She didn't care though. To Cynder, her life is nothing but death and darkness, and it should be eradicated. Her voice started to come out again in a singing, but also very dark tone.

"_**Now in death, bring me life!**_

_**all that I am will be coming home now,**_

_**I did it all for you,**_

_**I'm becoming real now, with all I am...with all I am,**_

_**I swear to you, I'll kill them all,**_

_**I'll make them suffer,**_

_**and now in death, bring me life!" **_unlike last time when the song she sang before was nice and peaceful and soothing, this was very, VERY dark. She stopped at the last few words that were snag, and continued her flight to absolute nowhere. A few moments later, her wings started to feel the strain from flying too long. Struggling to stay up, pain and tiredness got to her.

"Ung! Argh! I can't keep this up, where is a place I can land damn it!" she looked desperately for a landing zone. Descending through more of the clouds, the forests and hills below were fully visible to her.

There was a small yellow field surrounded by the forest trees, the perfect place for the dragoness to land. The reason why the field was yellow is because, unlike green fields, this one was dried up from the hot sun. It also had a few hollow logs that were laying down perfectly still.

"It'll have to do" she thought, taking up the decision to rest there. The dragoness swooped in like a bird of prey trying to catch its dinner. Landing perfectly, Cynder looked around for any signs of danger.

The trees had nothing, the dried up, long grass had nothing and the logs were perfect for sleeping in. All was good...for now anyway. Cynder sleeked into a log that fit her size, covering her from being exposed outside. She slowly laid her soft underbelly on the hard wood of the log. It surely wasn't comfortable, but it's better than sleeping out in the cold, but even then, it was still a little chilly in the log.

"Brr! I h-h-hate t-t-the c-c-cold!" she tried using her wings to cover her body like a blanket, but she was still freezing. She suddenly remembered that Spyro always comforted her when she needed it the most, which was right this instant. She started to miss his company, his warmth that he produced from his body, especially when he would spread a wing over her for security and even more warmth. She missed him.

"He can h-h-have a better l-l-life without m-m-me...I'm sure there is someone out there for him t-t-that hasn't killed our race...I'm not worthy enough to have my own young ones, let alone with the purple dragon. Thel...I regret arguing with him now. I'm useless" she hated her own life, wishing she never hatched.

The night was starting to overshadow the land once again. Before the moons even rose, Cynder fell fast asleep, still feeling the cold. Her scales were a little hard, frozen from the icy night and the flight didn't help her wings either. She started sleeping through the dark cold night whilst at the city, Arbiter and Spyro were both inside the Grand Atrium, in the mess hall. The moles were still working on the projects, but some took a break for a few hours. Shin was also in the hall, drinking a kind of beverage unknown to the Sangheili, or to anyone really, but it tasted like raspberry with a touch of alcohol, but Shin didn't seem to notice that. Jabjab and Yapflop were with Shin, talking about what happened today, mostly about Jabjab's misfortune with the Banshee. Darst was nowhere to be seen still, most likely to be working on those weapons. The cheetah villagers were also here, drinking the same beverage that Shin was having, large, smooth, wooden cups.

Thel and Spyro sat across from each other, not far from where the grunts and Shin were. The Hunters were still on the wall, guarding the entrance most likely. Thel had his hands together, thinking about the events of today. His head and eyes were looking directly at the wooden table, still quite stunned from when the black dragoness told him off and even thinking about the Brute attack force that will arrive in less than 48 hours. He wanted the Banshee, the weapons, the armour and the Locust finished as soon as possible, or their efforts will be in vain when Chieftain Magnaruckus arrives with a vicious and savage army of Jiralhanae. Spyro rested his head on his forearms, which were also sitting on the top of table. He was missing the Cynder so much. He wanted her by his side, loving her, caring for her. She was the only thing left in the world he cared for, and now that she has ran away, he feels so alone.

"Cynder...why did you have to go like that? why? your past can be easily forgotten now, we can forget about the war now...but it still comes to you" Spyro felt only guilt and regret come upon him. He loved her and she just ran away, flown right out of the city, probably never returning. He resisted a tear that was about to come out.

"The Brutes are coming...the damn Locust ain't even half finish yet, the Banshee isn't finished its remake, Darst hasn't come out of his room for day on end and the armour for all the inhabitants for the city isn't complete yet! And Cynder has ran away, which just heightens the difficulty...Grr, this day has disappointment written all over it!" Thel slammed on the table with a right fist, scaring Spyro and frightening out of his thoughts. He stared at the elite, wondering why he was so angry all of a sudden. The furious look in Arbiter's eyes revealed that something had to be done now. Thel looked up at Spyro, wanting to ask a few things.

"Spyro, where's that glow stick you call brother at?" Thel firmly asked the purple dragon about Sparx's whereabouts. He didn't hold back in answering the question.

"He's asleep in my room. I promise that he won't get up until morning" he revealed the dragonfly's location. Thel was pleased about this.

"Excellent, then I propose that we look for Cynder" Thel suggested. This surprised Spyro quite a bit, widening his eyes. He saw the dragoness yelling at him not a few hours ago and Thel wished to get Cynder back in one piece. The purple dragon removed his forearms from the table and lifted his head, interested to know what Thel's plan was.

"You want to find her, after she yelled at you? cause I saw the look in your eyes when she said that you never experienced what she did...it looked like you were about to crack" Spyro reminded Arbiter about that argument. The elite grumbled inside himself, remembering that moment.

"Look, I was never corrupted by some bastard that intended to destroy this world and kill my own species, but I saw my elites get massacred by the Brutes. I'm damn sure most of the casualties were involved in the fight for High Charity, where the Sangheili, the Jiralhanae and the rest of the Covenant, as well as the Flood, and believe me; many Sangheili died in vain on that day. In short I have experienced my race getting torn apart, but that doesn't stop me from getting payback for what the Brutes have done...murderous, bloody creatures" Thel explained to Spyro. The battle for High Charity was violent and brutal, a battle that tore a huge hole in the Covenant. Spyro nodded, listening to what Thel said.

"I see. Then Cynder was wrong, you have experienced it then" Spyro came to that conclusion, and Arbiter chuckled at that sentence.

"Well let's keep it at yes and no. I saw my race get massacred, but was far from being corrupted, but enough of that. She could be in danger, especially at night. If the Brutes are already making their way to the city, then they must be moving quite slowly to get here in just under 48 hours, but if Cynder is far out, then they could find her" Thel marked that sentence as a possibility. Spyro's heart raced with fear, afraid of what the Jiralhanae would do to her.

"By the ancestors...you're right, they could find her. Wh-what would they do to her?" Spyro asked quickly, wanting to know what Brutes do with their prisoners.

"Well judging from what you two did to their camp, I'd say execution; skinned, limbs ripped apart, eaten alive, shot to death, head ripped from the shoulders and used as a trophy...do you want me to go?" Thel asked Spyro, but it was obvious that the purple dragon did not want to hear anymore, thinking about all those things that the Brutes will do to Cynder.

"Those savages! if they even touch her once, I shall kill them all! I'll make them suffer for it!" Spyro was about to explode like a volcano, but Thel suddenly remembered what the guardians told him about Spyro's anger. If it gets to a critical level, bad things will happen. A lot of bad things.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa! I didn't say they already captured her. I promise that we will find her, but please don't go all dark side on me, I heard what happens to you if your anger and rage takes over you, don't do that!" Thel pleaded, reminding Spyro about his dark form...an evil form indeed.

"Oh, you heard about that then?" Spyro quickly calmed down, feeling guilty that Thel knew about his dark side.

"Spyro, I don't blame you for what happened during those days for you. The point is, you have it, and you're going to live with it for the rest of your life. Just don't do it in front of me, I want to have a chance to hide or defend myself at the very least" Thel kindly asked the purple dragon that favour. Spyro gave out a cocky smirk as a response.

"Why, are you afraid of my dark side?" Spyro asked Thel with a cocky attitude.

"From what I heard, you killed a giant monkey looking thing in cold blood, I rather shoot myself than end up dead like that. All right, enough of this, we need to get moving. It's going to be a long night so I'd suggest you put some protection on, in case we encounter any unwanted creatures" Thel suggested to Spyro. The dragon nodded in response.

"All right. I can head down to the blacksmith's, maybe they've finished my new armour" Spyro thought.

"Good, I'll see if those furballs have finished the remake of the Banshee, I'm going to need it, if not, I'm walking then, and that means our travelling is going to be a bit slower" Thel hoped. Spyro took off out of the window, already making his way to the blacksmith's...without the guardians permission...again. Thel was about to walk out of the mess hall, until a hand was placed on his left shoulder.

"Grr, what?" Thel turned around to see Shin in front of him.

"I'm sorry Thel if I bothered you, but I overheard what you and the dragon were saying...and I want to tag along" Shin wanted to go along with this journey. Thel was conspicuous about this request.

"But Shin, the Banshee can only fit one pilot in it" Thel reminded Tarscar, but Shin shook his head.

"No, the Banshee is not finished the remake yet, tomorrow morning is when it could be finished, but it's out of commission for flight right now" the Banshee could not be used to fly, and this pisses of the Arbiter. It was flyable before, but why not now?

"Why is it then? seriously?" Thel demanded to know.

"The two wings are being remade now, they're the last things that are needed to finish before the Banshee is truly the sleeker model we've been expecting, but the whole thing will blow up if its turned on...I'm sure you don't want that" no Banshee, no flight across the world, meaning slower travel.

"Grr, that's just perfect. All right, are you sure you want to come along with me and Spyro. What about the construction of the Locust?" Vadam needed that Locust completed as soon as possible. Shin got that all taken care of.

"Don't worry, those moles know what they're doing now. The whole body is almost complete. Then they need to do all this wiring from the control seat to the weapons and controls systems. Then we need a power source to fully complete it, which I still haven't got" Shin brought the brunt of bad news with those last few words, but Arbiter was fine with the other construction capabilities.

"Hmm, all right then. You can tag along" Thel gave him full authority to Tarscar, pleasing the blue armoured elite.

"Thank you sir" Shin respectfully responded.

"Heeeey, can we come along too?" a grunty voice asked the elites. They both look down to see Jabjab and Yapflop right below them, begging to come along. Their eyes just pleaded to him. Arbiter sighed in slight defeat.

"Ung...fine" (Thel's mind: "They might be useful as meat shields anyway") the elite spoke in his head. Shin though was concerned about this idea.

"Uh...I don't know if the grunts should be brought along, after all, they're only small and they will slow us down even more, it's too risky" Shin thought. Both grunts suddenly turned to Shin with saddened faces.

"Ohhh! No fair! you guys get to do all the fun stuff, why can't we help huh?" Jabjab demanded to know, arguing with Shin's decision.

"Unggoy, this is a delicate search and rescue mission. We can't waste any time finding Cynder, she could be in grave danger, and the night only brings cold, some of us might freeze to death out there, namely you two for such a small size, you won't have eno-" Shin was suddenly cut off by Thel placing his right arm in front of Tarscar, stopping him from talking any further.

"Now, now Shin, we're going to need all the help we can get if we ever fight dangerous beings out there, like those Grublins for example. The grunts come along, as long as they DON'T SLOW US DOWN!" Thel instantly lowered himself to their level and made a clear example to them. Their bodies frozen and their eyes glazed at the Arbiter with stunned faces.

"Yes sir, Arbiter sir!" Yapflop saluted, even if former Covenant warriors don't actually salute. Thel shook his head, feeling sorry for how idiotic the orange armoured Unggoy is.

"If your all going out there to try and find Cynder, your all going to need this stuff then" a deep voice told all of them. They turned to see Darst walking towards them with weapons on his back something strange in his hands.

He threw two pairs of wrist armour over to Shin and Thel, catching them without hesitation. The Arbiter looked carefully at these pieces of armour. They weren't ordinary wrist pieces, these specific creations were able to activate the energy dagger, a close quarters killing weapon, used for assassinations and other melee specific combat. These were mostly used for the battle of Reach. They can activate like an energy sword, only daggers are easier to handle with and are very efficient killing any enemy.

"Darst...how did...you know what, don't even answer that" Shin was stunned about how Darst was able to make these things. Kino could only smirk, with an uptight expression on his face. Crossing his arms, he revealed some of his history in the Covenant war.

"Before I became a zealot, I used to work on weapons and equipment for the Covenant. That job was much more simpler before those suicidal prophets decided to promote me. I thought I would've forgot how to do this stuff but it seems my old skills are still with me, thankfully" Darst explained a tiny bit of his Covenant history. Thel responded with a nod, trying to get his new wrist energy daggers to activate. At the swish of left wrist movement, the dagger activated. It was a single energy blade, unlike the energy sword which had a double blade on it. He then turned on the other, having two wrist dagger blades from both arms.

"Now this, I like" Thel was about to act like a kid on Christmas day but he resisted the urge to get excited. Shin was also able to do it.

"Nice..." Tarscar mumbled, looking at the energy blades.

"All right, all right, put them away. Here, take these for the journey. You encounter any resistance, you annihilate as best you can with these things. Here's the plasma launcher you gave me before Thel, take this focus rifle Shin and Yapflop, here's your...pet fuel rod gun, whatever you call it" Kino handed them heavy weapons that have been tweaked and upgraded.

The focus rifle had a dark blue glow to the energy inside it, instead of purple. The plasma launcher has been tweaked to have unlimited energy, but it must recharge every now and then. The fuel rod gun had a black glow to the rods instead of the usual green one. Poor Jabjab does not receive a heavy weapon though, but it didn't seem to bother him much. The green armoured grunt watched them speculate their weapons.

"Excellent, thank you Darst, these are much appreciated" Thel thanked Kino. Darst held up a hand.

"No need for that Thel, It had to be done for the Sangheili resistance" Darst politely replied.

"Aren't you coming?" Shin asked the crimson armoured zealot, raising a brow.

"No, I need to keep on working with some more weapons. I bid you good luck though, for trying to find Cynder. Bring her back safely, before the Brutes find her. No telling what those vile beasts will do to her" Darst supported their mission. The elites nodded respectfully to the zealot as he walked off.

As the Sangheili rescue team preps up for their task, the Brute Cruiser was not to be seen, unless you looked hard enough. In the forthcoming darkness of the night, the 'Prophet's Vengeance' was camouflaged to not be seen at all. The ground forces were far in front of the ship. The encampment has fully packed up and has already started mobilizing for their attack on Warfang. This powerful Jiralhanae force will not stop at nothing to finally destroy the Arbiter and his resistance army. Inside the ship, the camo did not affect the inside of the ship. On the bridge, navigators of the ship check their radars every now and then to search for anything interesting. Magnaruckus really didn't have much to do, so he'd thought to check up what was on the enhanced radars, which could scan miles on end. One particular Brute suddenly caught something black on his radar. He had to take action here.

"Uh, Chieftain, It think I found something here!" the Brute navigator called out to his superior. Carrying Tartarus' hammer over, Magnaruckus looked at the device himself. Scratching his chin, he figured out what creature could that be. Suddenly, it clicked into his mind.

"It's the black freak flyer...send out 3 dropships to kill it!" the chieftain ordered.

**This is probably the last run outside the city before the final battle for the city. I need some feedback guys, what are you expecting to show up during this run and the final battle? Hm? review please, this chapter was quite hard to write.**


	24. The Great Journey

The night has overshadowed the land once more. The sky night revealed the stars and moons of this dragon dominated planet...or so it seems with their race on the verge of extinction. The city of Warfang was pretty silent asides from the construction work for rebuilding some structures that were destroyed by the Lekgolo's attack, as well as the banging noises for remaking the Banshee. Thel, Shin and the grunts were making their way to grab Spyro and get on with their search and rescue mission to find Cynder, who has ran away from the city. She's vulnerable to anything now. With some upgraded weapons, they should be able to put up a good fight against the Brutes. The former Covenant warriors were a few metre's from the front door of the blacksmith, at which point, Thel held up his right fist, telling Tarscar and the grunts to stop.

"Head to the front gates, I'll catch up with you" Thel looked back at Shin. The elite nodded, confirming the order with a smirk on his face.

"Hm, alright then, just make it quick. Grunts, come" Shin commanded the Unggoy, not even looking at them.

He was carrying the upgraded focus rifle on his back with a spiker and energy sword hand on his thighs, ready to fight at a moment's notice, with Thel having the plasma launcher on his back, and a plasma rifle and energy sword handle on his thighs. Whilst Shin had one wrist energy dagger, Thel had two on each wrist, making him the opposing force up close that every Sangheili wishes to be. Yapflop has a found a way to attach his fuel rod gun named 'Happy chappy' to his methane pack, using a hook to stick into the armour and have it poking out the other side to place the large weapon. It was the only thing he was armed with and yet, he had the strength to carry it with. Jabjab had the needler and a plasma rifle on each of his small thighs, planning to duel wield them when he fights. Shin and the Grunts disappear around the corner whilst Thel passively strolled to the front door, crossing his arms and waiting for Spyro.

A few moments later, what seemed to be like a few minutes, the door finally opened and out came the purple dragon wearing strong, resilient, steel shined armour, all over his body, unlike just a helmet, wrist and base tail armour like he wore during the war. It seemed more protective but the helmet he wore resembles the gold one he used to wear, only parts of it went below the jaw line this time. The tail tip had a sharp edge as well, somewhat resembling Cynder's scythe tail tip. Thel raised both his brows, smiling at Spyro's new look.

"Well, that stuff looks like it can survive a few spiker rounds, unlike your scales that were impaled the last time" Thel mocked the purple dragon's skin which could hardly resist the sharp point of a Brute weapon. He responded with a grin.

"Says the elite who has some armour that can't resist the power of their own energy weapons" Spyro reminded Thel about the night with the fire, remembering Darst slicing Arbiter's chest armour and penetrating through it, releasing the Sangheili blood. It was repaired since then. The elite Arbiter grinned.

"Alright, you got me there. When you're ready, we can start searching for Cynder, but we have to hurry. I hate going out at night, knowing that there are things out in the shadowed lands that want nothing but to rip your head off" Thel admitted. Spyro looked around the city, remembering what it looked like in case he might never come back, not in one piece anyway. He sighed and responded;

"Ok, let's go find her. I need to see her again" Spyro whispered so Thel couldn't hear those last few words, but elites had good hearing, Of course Arbiter heard him and he felt the dragon's inner pain.

"C'mon then, I promise we'll bring her back safely. I swore to protect her after the night with the fire, I'm not giving up on that yet" Thel was still keeping his promise from a couple of days ago. Spyro looked up the Arbiter and smiled weakly.

Side by side, they headed for the gates, exit and entry of the city. Shin, Yapflop and Jabjab were there waiting, outside the city. The gates were already opened for them and as soon as Thel and Spyro walk outside it, they will closed shut, not allowing entry back in. Shin's was waiting with arms crossed, looking dominantly superior to the grunts, who were walking around him aimlessly with nothing to do. Yapflop looked up and saw them, excited that they're finally gonna get on the way.

"Here they come, yay, we're ready to kick ass!" the orange grunt jumped for joy. Jabjab looked up and spotted them just exiting out the gates. He ran to Shin's side and decided to stand with him.

"Are we all good then?" Tarscar asked. Thel stopped in front of him and nodded.

"We are. Tell them to close the gates, we can't leave it open like this" Arbiter said, looking back at the entrance.

Shin looked up at one of the moles on top of the wall, waving at the furball. This signalled him to close the gates and he made run for the controls. The Hunters were also on top of the wall, watching Thel's group leave. As soon as the gates closed, the Arbiter, Spyro, Shin, Yapflop and Jabjab got on with their mission to find and bring Cynder back alive and safely. Besides the Lekgolos were Darst and Hunter, who were also watching the small group go into the unknown. Kino looked at Hunter, wanting to ask a quick question.

"Do you think they'll come back with the dragoness, as well as themselves?" Darst trying to make conversation with the cheetah. Hunter looked back Kino with a face that looked quite concerned. Turning back to stare at the outside of the city, he answered Darst's question.

"If I know Spyro, he won't let anything touch Cynder. He'll protect her with his life if he had to. As for Thel and Shin, they're strong willed warriors, never surrendering to anything they encounter. There's no doubt they will try to fight with all their might. I don't know about those two little imbeciles though, I've never really seen them in combat, but if that orange one has that fuel rod cannon thing then, well, maybe they'll do something interesting for once. Why do you ask?" Hunter commented about them. Darst also looked back out at the open, staring into those fields. He seemed to have a worried expression on his face.

"Something tells me that some of them are not coming back in one piece...let alone alive" Kino mumbled in a dark tone.

As Thel and the others went off to find Cynder, the black dragoness herself was sleeping like a little baby inside the cold and dark hollow log. She seemed to twitch every few seconds and with good reason. She was having a nightmare, much like Arbiter did a couple of nights ago. Unlike Thel's though, her nightmare was much more destructive, filled with conflict. She received brief images of war, coloured with orange with the shadows looking pure black. She could see the city of Warfang, getting completely annihilated by the Brute Cruiser's glassing attack. Cynder then saw images of Jiralhanae, killing and massacring everyone in their paths. She even saw the Brute Chieftain Magnaruckus fighting a lone elite with two energy swords in each hand. They ran at each other with the melee weapons in their hands, about to clash. Before they did, everything went black. Suddenly, more unbearable images came to her, this time, showing the entire city, burning to the ground. Everyone was dead, brutes, moles, cheetahs, even the grunts and the hunters. Even some dragons were killed, including Spyro and the guardians. Even the elites; Thel, Darst and Shin. The only thing that could be seen besides the eradicated city was the Cruiser.

"No...no!...NO! AGH!" Cynder screamed waking up, only to find out it was a nightmare.

She breathed heavily, trying to shake off what she saw. The dragoness felt hot all over her body, but the night was still cold. She ran out of the log to cool off. The stars were still out with no cloud to cover the sky. A bit of a breeze moved around the meadow area, with the surrounding forest trees to sway side to side. As she seemed to calm down, Cynder laid her belly on the grass, not wanting to go back into the log. The young dragoness went through what she saw, even if her mind didn't want her to. Destruction, conflict, death, annihilation and eradication is all she saw from those images. How horrifying it was to experience all that.

"Was...was that like anything Arbiter had in his nightmare? or was it a warning for things to come? Oh, by the ancestors, have I gone mad?" she thought.

"Everyone...dead. Killed by those savage freaks!" She grinded her teeth, even if it was only images that she saw. They weren't the real thing.

"And that big Brute that Thel was about to fight. Was that Magnaruckus that he told me about? That thing seemed so real!" Cynder quoted the Chieftain in her images.

Little did the dragoness know, a few beasts were creeping up to her, using the dark as cover. They were armed with large clubs with spikes coming out of them. Quietly, they got even closer to the dragoness, with the moons light revealing what they were. The Grublins almost got in striking range, with the lead large one almost ready to attack. Before it even could, one of 4 of the critters accidently stepped on a twig, making a loud snap. They stopped and looked up at Cynder. She instantly lifted her head and turned to see the 4 Grublins right behind her.

"Uh-oh" the one at the front remarked.

Cynder suddenly widened her eyes and got up. She swung her scythe tail at the one in front, slicing the throat of the Grublin, spilling its blood and marking its doom. The other three backed off and circled around her, causing the dragoness to get defensive. She growled at them, trying to intimidate the ugly things to run away, but they weren't afraid of her. They kept circling her, waiting for the moment to strike. Looking to her left and right, Cynder knew she was cornered. The one reason why they won't attack now is because the dragoness will just use her scythe tail tip to stop them from even laying a finger on her. It was a fearsome weapon to fight against.

"All right, who's first then?" she asked them, trying to lure them into attacking her.

One of the Grublins on her left charged at the dragoness, hoping to catch Cynder off guard, but she countered by grabbing the neck with her teeth. With Grublin blood starting to seep out, she immediately threw it into one of its other charging companions on her right side, who were both sent flying into the ground. The one behind her decided to avenge its comrades and raised its club to charge at Cynder. The dragoness turned around instantly and blew out a dark flame of shadow fire from her jaws. The Grublin's scream very inhuman, yelling at the top its lungs whilst slowly dying. When it stopped, the Grublin fell to the ground with dark fire still burning the corpse. Happy to know its dead, Cynder turned back to the other 2 Grublins that went flying. The one that wasn't thrown pushed its brother off him as he too was already dead and jumped up to meet her face to face, Dragoness to Grublin warrior. Cynder slowly crouched down into another defensive position, waiting on the Grublin's next move.

"All right you club wielding monster, your turn, what's it gonna be?" Cynder demanded to know what it was planning.

The Grublin seemed to put a wicked smile on its face. Cynder raised her right brow. What was it going to do? Suddenly, it screeched at the top of its lungs, making a noise way to unbearable for the dragoness who tried blocking the abomination of a sound out by covering her head with her wings, but it just breaks through to her. When it stopped, all went quiet for a moment. Cynder uncovered herself and placed her wings back at her side. The Grublin stood right there in front of her, staring at the dragoness with those evil eyes and a sneering smile. All of a sudden, screeching and hissing came through the trees behind the Grublin. The dragoness backed off instantly. Her eyes widened as she knew what the little freak just did. Out of the darkened shadows of the trees, many of its cousins slowly went to the survivor Grublin's side. There was so many of them, at least more than 70 of the green goblins! way too many for Cynder to handle alone. She slowly backed away from them, but the Grublin platoon were following her. They all had the same lust in their eyes, to kill the dragoness that helped the purple dragon defeat their master. Every one of them seemed to be unarmed or with a club. The largest ones were no taller than half a Lekgolo's size, but still, way too many.

"(gulp) this isn't my night" her legs were trembling at the sight of how many there were.

The surviving Grublin ran up to Cynder, wanting kill her. It jumped into the air, trying to pounce onto her, but a sudden dark violet plasma bolt hit the Grublin's right side in mid air, sending it flying into the ground and killing it. Cynder looked to her left and sudden dread overshadowed the dragoness. The Grublin platoon too looked at where the anomaly came from. They all screeched and hissed at the sight of 3 Brute Phantoms heading straight for them all. Inside the leading Phantom dropship, Magnaruckus himself was at one of the side doors, with arms crossed and he didn't seem to have the Fist of Rukt with him. The dropships drifted a right and now, giving the Chieftain a clear view of the area. The other doors were closed on the other Jiralhanae ships, but there is no doubt they'll open soon. The Grublins jumped up, trying to attack Covenant craft, but to no avail. The Brute Chieftain chuckled at these idiotic beasts.

"You've got to be kidding me, what are these things?" Magnaruckus laughed.

In response, one of the Grublins picked up a small rock and threw it at this unknown enemy, to them anyway. The object smacked Magnaruckus in the eye, causing him to roar in pain. He growled loudly, covering his left eye.

"You little runts will pay for that! Phantoms, fire at will! kill those bloody things!" the Chieftain ordered the Phantom pilots.

At a moment's notice, the large front forward plasma cannons all aimed at the Grublin army and fired at them without mercy. Each shot made a somewhat large explosion, causing some Grublins to be sent in the air. The fire rate of the cannons was quite slow, but still caused extreme damage to both the Grublin platoon and the environment around them. The environment itself though, the grass was being burnt to ground by the hot plasma with smoke coming off the remains. They screamed in pain, suffering from the Brute's more superior technology. Cynder watched the platoon fall under the relentless pressure of the Brutes. She didn't really care whether they lived or die. They were Grublins anyway, they deserved to die for what they did in the war. The other large side doors of the Phantoms opened, revealing a large number of Brutes, as well as letting a plasma gunner to jump on and help the Phantoms in their shooting gallery.

Two Brute minors jumped onto the small plasma cannons whilst the rest of their pack brothers ran out of them ships and landed hard on the ground. Unpacking their Brute shot grenade launchers and spikers, The Phantoms, the side gunners and the Jiralhanae on the ground unleashed Brute fury on the Grublins, eliminating any that tried to fight them. Many of the freaks were getting annihilated by this firepower that they've never seen in their lifetimes. Suddenly, the survivors started to make a run for it. They all ran to the trees, never to be seen again. Cynder could hardly believe what the Jiralhanae did to the platoon. Only 13 of the Grublins escaped, the others were either completely disintegrated or all over the place in pieces. Magnaruckus was pleased of this small victory giving of a vicious smile, the Brutes showed the Grublins that they were superior and more dominant than the little green freaks were. The Chieftain turned to his right and saw the black dragoness staring at him.

"You" Magnaruckus pointed at her. Cynder stood there, shocked that the Brute spotted her. The Brutes on the ground turned and instantly aimed their weapons at her. There was at least 34 of them, armed to the teeth.

"Hold your fire you fools, I wish to take a look at the black freak flyer myself" Magnaruckus ordered them. They all lowered their launchers and spikers, obeying their pack master's orders.

This confused Cynder. Why didn't he issue the order to kill her, after what she did to them at the encampment. She didn't move a muscle, not trying to risk a getaway.

"But sire, you said before you wanted to kill it, now you want to have a l-" the captain behind Magnaruckus elbowed him in the gut, stopping him from finishing the sentence and leaving him to groan on the Phantom.

The Chieftain menacingly walked over to Cynder, with a straight and firm facial expression, trying to make this confrontation look serious. The black dragoness then wanted to know what he wanted. She knew she was speaking to the Sangheili's arch rivals and enemies, but since the elites weren't around, she might as well see what they'd want. Magnaruckus stopped right in front of her, standing much higher than the dragoness in size and height. He could squish her right there, but the Chieftain made no attempt.

"Greetings...freak flyer" Magnaruckus insulted her, but that's what the Brutes could only call them.

"What do you want with me you giant ape?" she insulted Magnaruckus back. He chuckled evilly at her, ignoring what she said.

"I don't really want anything from you, as a matter of fact, I wish to know what this planet is, what you flyers are exactly?" the Chieftain put a wicked smile on his face. The Brutes moaned behind him, not wanting to hear this.

"No disrespect pack master, but we're going to kill it anyway, what's the point of this nonsense?" a minor moaned.

"Shut up, captain, execute him!" Magnaruckus turned and ordered the Brute captain next to the minor.

"Wait n-" the minor was shot in the head with 5 spikes by the captain, going through the neck, eyes and brain. It dropped dead, scaring Cynder. If they kill their own like that, what could they do to her.

"Now freak flyer, answer these questions of mine and your life might be spared. Number 1: what planet is this?" Magnaruckus asked her. Cynder hesitated to answer, but if she want to keep her own life, she had no choice.

"It's called E-Earth" she stuttered, but Magnaruckus heard her clearly.

"What? Impossible. How is...never mind, next one; what are you exactly, what is your species name?" Magnaruckus crouched down to her height, but still he was very tall.

"My race? we're called Dragons, not freak flyers as you might call us now" Cynder revealed her race's name. Magnaruckus huffed at the name.

"Eh, freak flyers is still an appropriate name for all of you. Last one; What are the elites planning for their defence of the city against our mighty attack force?" the Chieftain wanted to know the plans, as Cynder seemed to know. She growled at the Brute, not willing to give that info out.

"I'm not letting that escape from my lips you savages!" the dragoness defied the chieftain. Magnaruckus exposed his teeth, trying to intimidate her.

"Now, now female freak flyer, let's not get so hasty. Remember that I could always just kill you right now. I could even break your bones by chewing through it!" Magnaruckus snapped at her, causing Cynder to back off.

"Now tell me! what do the Sangheili have at their disposal!" he repeated the question. She resisted to answer it. If the Brutes knew what the elites had right now, the Brutes would be more cautious about their attack, thus, the element of surprise would be lost. Cynder was reluctant to say though and this put the chieftain in a more furious mood.

"Grr! YOU SHOULD HAVE TOLD ME WHEN YOU HAD THE CHANCE!" Magnaruckus shouted at the top of his lungs.

He held up his right arm and grabbed Cynder by the neck, choking the dragoness. He stood back up to his normal height, still taking her breath away. The Brutes watched as their chieftain kept on suffocating her life.

"You brought this upon yourself freak flyer!" Magnaruckus sneered at Cynder.

Without enough air to breath, she could not move her wings, let alone most of her body. She tried clawing the chieftain's wrist, but only giving him small blood stained scratches which he couldn't feel. She tried swaying her tail around but she was too caught up on breath, struggling to exhale oxygen. In a moment's notice, Magnaruckus roared and sent Cynder straight into the ground hard, still holding her and landing on her backside. The impact was so big, dust was sent up after the bang. When the chieftain backed off, the dust cleared and the dragoness laid there very still. Could Magnaruckus have killed her?

**I'd like to thank everyone who has take their time to review the story, I really appreciate all the nice comments because, well as I said once before, this is my first fic so, I thought things would go badly, but all is good thankfully, and this thing ain't over yet. Have a nice day everyone.**


	25. One goes dark, everyone dies

Thel, Spyro and the rest of the small search group continued their search for Cynder. Venturing far from Warfang, they eventually stumbled across a large forest that spanned across the landscape, and Thel decided they went through it. Apparently, Spyro could easily track her scent, which confused Thel. How did the purple dragon smell her even though she could be miles away where they were. Spyro was ahead of the group with Arbiter right behind him, and Shin with the Grunts travelling just behind Arbiter. Jabjab and Yapflop were having their usual annoying chit chat, but it didn't seem to bother Tarscar at all. He was a like a father to them. The Grunts were talking about events that happened during the covenant war, which Thel didn't want to bother listening to. Instead, he ran up to Spyro's side to find out how he was tracking her so easily.

"Ahem, if I ain't interrupting anything, how are you able to smell Cynder from so far away? I'm quite curious" Thel asked the purple dragon. Spyro looked up to Thel and then hesitated to answer. He seemed a little embarrassed to tell him this, but it couldn't hurt, could it?

"Well, besides the normal scent she leaves behind, the reason why I can easily pick her up is because...well" Spyro looked down on the ground, not wanting to complete the sentence.

"Don't stop, I'd like to know, anything you say will be better than what those runts are saying" The Arbiter tried to block out the noisy voices of the Grunts. Spyro had a little blush on him with his heart racing, but he finally let the answer slip out.

"All right. It's because..." Spyro said, pausing in the middle of his sentence, "she's in heat". Arbiter widened his eyes in shock, knowing exactly what he meant.

"Oh, I see. Sorry I asked" Thel apologised in a polite manner, respecting the natural life cycle dragons have.

"It's ok. I don't think she even knows herself about it" Spyro continued. Thel then had another thought on his mind.

"Wait, how is she in heat at her age? aren't you two still a bit young" Thel asked, wanting to learn more about the biology of the dragon race.

"Yeah, both Cynder and I aren't at the appropriate mating age yet. I still don't know why though" Spyro responded. Thel mildly shrugged his shoulders, also having no clue.

"How long has she been in heat for, surely you must know" Thel looked back at Spyro. He sighed, lowering his head.

"She's been like it through half the day. Is it going to complicate our defence?" Spyro asked, concerned that this might be a problem.

"No, I don't think it will, but when the Brutes finally come to attack the city, you can't let your personal feelings for Cynder get in the way. You could let down your guard, worried that something has happened to her and that might cost your life. Jiralhanae will target the weakness' of their enemies and if they find out that you're very close to the dragoness, they will use her against you. You don't want that now, do you?" Thel looked back in front of, still leading them deeper into the forest and letting Spyro to deal with his question.

"That's what I'm afraid of Thel. I can't let anything happen to her. She's all I got left in my life. I...I love her" Spyro narrowed his eyes down, knowing that Cynder is the only thing that keeps the purple dragon going. Arbiter didn't blame him. Going through war takes almost everything away from you. Family, friends, everyone.

"Well, consider yourself lucky, I have nothing else left. I lost my most trusted friend a few days ago. The only two things that has kept me from committing suicide is the will to defend my home planet and my vengeance of destroying the traitorous Brute savages. No one personally close though" Thel explained his reasons why he stays among the living. Spyro stared at him, feeling sorry for the elite.

"Then Thel, if we all get through this in one piece and you ever find a way to get home, why don't you meet someone yourself? You'd have another reason to keep on living" Spyro suggested for Vadam, asking him if he could find someone to care for himself. He huffed at this idea.

"I don't know. Even though I have split from the covenant, I still have the mark of shame. Its considered a dishonour on Sangheilios, there's no chance a female would take me" Thel downed himself, seeing that there is no future for this Arbiter. Spyro decided to make Vadam feel better by saying;

"And is that going to stop you?" Spyro smirked cheerfully. Arbiter lifted his head up in surprise, looking at Spyro. He raised his left brow and put a little smile on himself. Looking back to the front of him, he heard the sounds of explosions and screaming.

"Wait, stop!" Arbiter ordered them all. Spyro quickly reacted, looking directly in front of the group. Other than Cynder, he could also smell a bit of smoke. And some blood in the air. Shin and the grunts stopped immediately, also hearing the destructive explosions. Shin instantly knew what they were from.

"Arbiter, those are Brute shots firing!" Tarscar told them all with a low voice, trying to keep quiet. Thel growled, knowing exactly who holds them.

"C'mon! Cynder is where those explosions are coming from!" Spyro ran to where the dragoness and the explosions were. Thel followed close behind, with Shin just catching up, leaving the grunts behind.

"Oh brother, I hate how fast elites are!" Jabjab chased after them, waddling as fast as he could on those short, grunty legs.

"I hate how you always seem to run away from me when I try to tell you something awesome and epic!" Yapflop yelled at him, trying to catch up.

Spyro desperately ran to the destructive noises of the Brute shots, knowing Cynder could be there too. Thel jumped over a fallen log, trying to catch up to him and wanting to know what those savages are up too, with Shin following his every move, zigzagging around the tall trees, following the purple dragon. The grunts huffed and puffed as they ran. They weren't use to running this much but if they didn't want to get lost, they had to keep up. As they got closer, the explosions stopped. This really concerned both Spyro and Thel.

"Why have they stopped firing?" the Arbiter wondered.

Spyro finally saw an a few opening in the trees, seeing a field beyond it. He stopped before going through a few bushes, noticing 3 Phantom dropships hovering on the other side of the plains. Thel finally caught up to him and suddenly noticed the Brute craft.

"Get down!" Thel pulled Spyro into the bushes, not wanting to get caught. Spyro was a little hurt being pulled in but he ignored it. Shin jumped in as well, exhausted and relieved that he didn't lose them. The Grunts happily rejoined the group.

"Weee!" Yapflop and Jabjab excitedly cheered.

"Shut up!" Tarscar ordered them. Spyro and Thel were looking through to the other side of the bushes, looking at a Brute pack that has exterminated and eradicated a platoon of Grublins. They must've stopped firing just a few seconds ago, as some of the Jiralhanae were still reloading.

"They killed them all, those Grublins never stood a chance" Spyro whispered.

"Looks like they couldn't be bothered with them, so they killed them all in cold blood. They're mongrels anyway" Thel didn't care one bit about the little green freaks, instead, he was more in interested that Chieftain Magnaruckus was here.

"Huh? what is that vile beast doing here?" Vadam demanded to know. Spyro turned his attention the large Jiralhanae. Compared to the others, this Brute was the largest one the purple dragon's ever seen.

"Look at the size of that thing!" Shin was shocked, looking at him.

"Whoa, brutes are stinky and they're very big!" Jabjab added.

"That's what she said" Yapflop whispered, but Tarscar hit the grunt in the back of the head just for that comment.

"Idiot, this is no time for jokes! Arbiter, when shall we strike?" Shin asked his superior, but Thel was too caught up, with Spyro, watching Magnaruckus walking over to something.

They both moved over to the left, following the Chieftain's movement. As they got a clear view of what the monster was doing, they instantly saw what he was talking to. The black dragoness was in their sights, being interrogated by that disloyal beast.

"Cynder!" Spyro wanted to cry out to her, but Shin grabbed him by the shoulder, stopping him.

"No! if you jump out there, you'll be killed! and she might pay the price too!" Shin warned him.

"Shut it" Thel made Tarscar speak a little quieter.

They turned their attention back to Cynder and Magnaruckus. The massive Brute was asking her questions. Then at the last one, Cynder shouted at Magnaruckus, only angering the Brute.

"Cyn, don't do anything stupid" Spyro wanted to save her, but even he knew the Brutes would kill him where he stood if he tried.

Magnaruckus started growling loudly at the dragoness. He shouted at her, letting his grumbling voice be heard for miles. Thel instantly knew what Brutes do after this...they attack.

"By the gods, no!" Thel almost ran out of the bushes, but he resisted.

In an instant move, the group saw Magnaruckus grab Cynder by her neck, choking the living life out of her.

"You brought this upon yourself freak flyer!" Magnaruckus slammed the young Cynder into the ground, bringing up a large cloud of dust.

Thel's mandibles and Spyro's mouth instantly dropped in deep, emotional shock. The giant maniac backed away to look at what he just did. When the dust cleared, Thel and Spyro witnessed Cynder's body laying perfectly still. Thel couldn't believe his eyes. He saw a 20 ton Brute Chieftain crash a light weighted dragoness into the ground without mercy, the nature that all Brutes weild. Now, he might have just killed her...killed by a savage creature. Spyro swore he heard Cynder scream as she was slammed into ground the Brutes stood on. He felt the tears come onto him. The dragoness he cared for so much, spent so much time with her, protected her with his life, was suddenly and brutally killed by elites enemy.

"Those...monsters!" Spyro felt the anger come to him in an instant, exposing his teeth in rage. Thel turned and he saw Spyro's purple scales turn a little darker. Cynder and the guardians told him about this and it only brought trouble when this even happens.

"No, Spyro don't!" Arbiter tried to call out to him before it took over, but the darkness fully controlled the purple dragon's mind. Anger and revenge is Spyro could think about. Shin and the grunts instantly backed off, coming out of the bushes. The shadows fully covered his body and armour and his went completely white. Arbiter watched in horror, as the evil took control.

"Murderous...beasts. They killed her! THEY WILL ALL SUFFER FOR WHAT THEY'VE DONE!" Spyro's sinister, evil voice shouted and he launched himself directly at Magnaruckus.

"SPYRO NO!" Thel ran out, trying to grab the dark dragon, but the speed he suddenly wielded was unbelievable.

"Huh? WHAT THE? BY THE PROPHETS!" Magnaruckus turned and saw the evil dragon coming straight at him. Spyro rammed into the large Chieftain's chest with tremendous force, whilst the dragon was flying at a low level.

"AAAAAARRRRRGGGHHH!" Magnaruckus screamed as the force from what Spyro created sent the large chieftain flying into the trees, causing most to break as he flew.

Each tree that timbered down is one that Magnaruckus was sent through, recklessly destroying parts of the forest. The Brutes jaws dropped at the sight. Arbiter ran out of the forest in shock. A small, single dragon just sent a tremendously enormous Brute flying through the forest. Never has he seen strength from a single being so powerful that it's unparalleled. The dark dragon was not done yet. He looked up at the Phantom, noticing it had a single Brute on 2 of them.

"Your all next" the sinister voice of Spyro. He was in front of Cynder, who's body started twitching.

He opened his jaws to release the all powerful, annihilating, and destructive purple convexity beam, unleashing it upon the covenant craft. The beam went straight for the Phantom right at the back and the pilot suddenly noticed, but not having enough to evade.

"RARGH! NOOOOOO!" the pilot covered his face, bracing for the impact.

The Brute gunner jumped off the Phantom, not wanting to be part of the carnage. It went struck the left side, coming out the back right. Controlling his attack, Spyro (or Dark Spyro) dragged the beam across the Phantom, slicing through it to go to the next Phantom in the middle. In a sudden explosion, the Phantom was absolutely eradicated from existence. The Brutes watched in horror as their ships are destroyed by this small dark dragon they call a freak flyer. Not standing a chance, the second Phantom's armour was impaled by the beam, causing that one to explode in a blue fireball of fury as well. The Brute gunner on that ship did not have a chance to jump off though, and he died with the craft and pilot. Magnaruckus' personal dropship though had enough time to manoeuvre, and narrowly avoided the beam, but unbeknownst to the pilot, the Fist of Rukt slipped off the edge. Spyro closed his jaws to dissipate it, and turned his attention to a berserking Brute coming at him.

"DAMN YOU FREAK FLYER!" the Brute shouted as he drew closer to the dark dragon.

A sinister smile came upon Spyro. When the Brute got in range, Spyro jumped into the air and dug both sets of front claws into the Jiralhanae's face, causing it to scream in horrifying pain. Spyro's claws went through the eyes and the top part of the skull, possibly impaling the Jiralhanae's brain.

"AAAARRRGGHHH! HELP ME! GET THEM OUT! GAAARRGHH" the Brute slowly and painfully died.

Before he did, Spyro did a cold thing to a Brute and rip the head clean off, releasing tons of dark purple and red blood. The headless body dropped onto its knees before finally laying to down to decompensate. Spyro dropped the head on the ground before landing to give the Brutes a vicious stare. Arbiter thought he'd never see the day when a creature small than himself decapitate a Brute. Shin held his focus rifle in shock, just in case the Brutes spotted him, but the savages were all concentrated on Spyro.

"By the gods...what kind of power does that dragon possess?" Thel thought his eyes deceived him, but this wasn't dream.

The Grunts eyes were wide open, their arms drooped down, staring the fury of a dark dragon. Yapflop was the first to break the silence.

"Dude, I'm so getting drunk after this" he mumbled. Jabjab looked at him, but it seemed the right thing to do...for them anyway.

"I'm with you on that one" Jabjab slowly raised his right arm.

The Brutes stayed as far away from Spyro as possible, not accepting a similar fate from as their comrade did. Little did the dragon know, his dragoness behind him was moving her legs a tiny bit. Thel noticed Cynder moving. She wasn't dead. She opened her eyes and she sensed that her body was a bit numb from the impact. She moaned as the black dragoness slowly lifted her head up and try breath a bit better from the choking, rubbing her neck. She coughed a bit, but that wasn't enough for Spyro to hear. Cynder had a few marks from her crash into the earth, but nothing so serious.

"Cynder, she's alive!" Thel was relived and happy at the same time, but Spyro still didn't notice her.

She turned to her left to see the dark evil dragon that she knows all too well. Her heart ached as she knew who it was under those shadows. The bottom of her eyelids were about to release emotional eye water. watching the dragon she loved and cared so dearly for succumb to the dark shadows. In an instant, she did what she had to do.

"Spyro!" Cynder called out to him, breaking through the dark barriers in Spyro's mind. He turned his dark face and white eyes around to see that she was still alive and well. His heart raced as his bright eyes went from anger to a sad facial expression. He was so traumatized. He thought she was dead, gone from his life, but he was greatly mistaken.

"Cyn-Cynder?" Spyro's voice slowly returned to normal.

"Oh Spyro...it's happened again" she didn't want to see him in a state like this.

She loved the purple dragon that she knew all her life, even if he had the evil still dwelling inside him. She became relieved to see that the darkness receded slowly. His eyes returned back to their amethyst state, like they've always been. The shadows were gone. Spyro returned to his normal, so emotionally happy to see the dragoness still among the living.

"I-I thought...you were dead" Spyro was about to cry, but it was to be a happy one, finally reunited with Cynder.

"I'm ok Spyro. I've always have been" she smiled. Spyro couldn't help but smile back, wiping away a tear that was about to come out.

Thel was happy to see the couple finally back together and now they have her back in their possession. As they were just about to embrace each other, the Arbiter stared behind them in horror as he spotted Magnaruckus running out of the destroyed part of the forest. He roared and growled his way to the dragons, grabbing his Fist of Rukt in the process from the ground. He held to his right, ready to strike at one of them.

"SPYRO, CYNDER, LOOK OUT!" Thel called out to them, attracting the Brute pack's attention.

The dragons looked at Thel, then turned around to see the berserk chieftain running straight at them. Spyro quickly looked at Cynder, knowing he had to defend her. He jumped in front of, protecting his dragoness from the crazed chieftain.

"NO! SPYRO!" Cynder knew what he was doing. He was going to take the hit for her.

"YOU FREAK FLYERS WILL DIE FOR YOUR INSOLENCE!" Magnaruckus swang the hammer like a golf club, smacking it into Spyro's entire body, sending him into the forest just like he did to the Chieftain.

He yelled in pain as he crashed into one of the tree trunks and falling onto the ground, suffering a most likely fatal attack from the most powerful hammer ever created. Cynder stared at Spyro, terrified from what just happened, as well as angering her. She looked Magnaruckus, exposing the teeth, wanting to kill him.

"You monstrous, overgrown ape!" she insulted him.

Cynder pounced on top of his hammer and onto his back, catching the chieftain by surprise. She extended her front claws and dug deep under the Brute's skin, drawing his blood. She impaled him with her scythe tail tip, right into Magnaruckus' back, causing him to shout in extreme, agonising pain.

"RARGH! GET OFF ME DAMMIT!" he struggled to get her off his back.

As Cynder attacked Magnaruckus, Thel and Shin took cover behind a tree trunk as the Brutes started firing upon them. The Brute shots were decimating their cover, so they were a top priority. Tarscar leaned out of cover to fire a blue beam of infantry killing power. It went across the landscape, killing any Brute that didn't get to cover. Some made it to the hollow logs, others suffered getting literally sliced in half. Shin tried burning through the logs that Brutes hid behind, but the focus rifle, for some unknown reason, could not destroy their cover, only giving the wood searing burns. Shin hid behind the trunk again.

"What the? it only cuts through organic creatures! not bloody wood!" Shin moaned, pulling out his spiker and placing the focus rifle on the ground.

Thel took the plasma launcher from his back and held it with two hands, holding it like a human would with a rocket launcher. The Grunts ran behind the trunk to join the elites. Jabjab took out his needler and plasma rifle and held with a hand each.

"Sweet!" Jabjab jumped put from the log and went prone to suppress the Brutes.

One of them poked their head out and copped a skull full of pink needles, causing a small chain reaction within and blowing up the Brute's head wholesale.

"That ruined my night" the Brute next to the dead one mumbled.

"Oh snap!" Yapflop added insult to injury, holding the black fuel rod cannon.

"Hey, orange one, on my mark, we destroy their cover!" Thel ordered Yapflop, ready to fire his weapon.

"Uh, yea, got it!" Yapflop was ready to poke out. Shin fired multiple rounds from his spiker, suppressing and trading fire with the Brutes.

"All right, 3, 2, 1...ATTACK NOW!" Thel shouted. He, Shin, Jabjab and Yapflop started hammering the Brutes with everything they got. The black fuel rods created sudden and devastating explosions, causing Brutes to run and fire at the Sangheili resistance group out in the open. Thel's plasma grenades from the launcher followed their targets and stuck at least 4 Brutes with a grenade each.

"AGH, AGH! GET IT OFF ME! NO, NO!" the Brutes roared as they blew up in horrific explosions, leaving nothing but bloody body parts.

The Jiralhanae that were carrying Brute shots were no more. Only ones with spikers were the survivors. They started tearing up the elites cover. Knowing it's time to get a little close and personal with them, Thel jumped over the log without warning and started running at the Brutes firing at him. Missing each time a spike fired the Brutes were a little clumsy trying to shoot at the fast Sangheili. Thel placed his plasma launcher on his back and activated his right energy dagger, plus, pulling out an energy sword in his left. Shin jumped out of cover as well, leaving the Grunts to protect themselves, staying with the log. He was out in the open, shooting as many Brutes as possible, whilst they were firing at him.

When Thel got in range of the only Brute captain, he used the sword slice the spiker in half, disarming the savage. Without warning, he impaled the captain, using the dagger, in the neck, letting the blood seep out. The Brute couldn't breathe, as his windpipe was severed, so he died quickly. The blood got on Thel's hands, but that didn't seem to worry him. A Brute turned his attention from Shin to Vadam and quickly aimed at Arbiter. With no time to run at him, Thel threw his energy sword at the minor, like a spear, impaling and sending it through the air, going through 2 other Jiralhanae on the way and landing on a tree trunk.

While the grunts hid behind the log, The Phantom hovered above them, aiming its front forward plasma cannon at them. Jabjab looked up and saw the dropship, ready to kill where they hid.

"YAPFLOP! FLEEEEEEEE!" the green grunt ran away from the dropship. Yapflop looked up and he too started running for his life.

AGH! WOOO! YOU'RE NOT GETTING ME STINKY BRUTES!" Yapflop yelled out. Plasma fire followed the little grunts, but they serpentine around the area, avoiding the slow plasma bolts the Phantom fired.

Arbiter was fighting the Brutes really up close. He was using both of his energy daggers to slice and dice with. He stabbed another Brute in the head and sliced his windpipe to kill him for good. He turned and impaled another through the belly, deactivating his left energy dagger, and pulling the plasma rifle out and shooting from the Brutes chest to the head, annihilating it. Finishing it off, he kicked down the Brute with his left foot. He was the perfect close quarter combatant for anyone to challenger and he showed no mercy to the Jiralhanae, like an Arbiter should, if negotiations fail, but this is the Brutes he's fighting, diplomacy is dead here.

Cynder was still holding onto the chieftain for dear life. She has spilled so much of Magnaruckus' blood, never having lost so much before. This really started to anger him. Finally, he grabbed Cynder's right wing and pulled her over his right shoulder, but before he fully got her over him, her claws went straight across his face and scarring his right eye. In too much pain, he dropped Cynder. She grunted as she hit the ground and backed off to watch Mag trying to cover his bloodied face. She turned her attention to the injured Spyro, who was slowly walking away from the tree he slammed into. She was absolutely relieved to see him still moving.

"Spyro! Are you alright?" she was deeply concerned.

"I'm good…thank the ancestors for armour. But this has gone on long enough, we need to get out of here, now!" Spyro suggested. They both heard Arbiter's voice. Finding out where it came from, he was being choked by a Brute from behind.

"CYNDER! TAKE OUT THE PILOT IN THAT PHANTOM! IT'S THE ONLY WAY WE'RE GETTING OUT OF HERE ALIVE! COME HERE YOU VILE COVENANT FANATIC!" Thel grabbed the Brute and threw him over his head, putting him in the ground. Stomping on his back, he reactivated his right dagger severed the Brute's spinal cord in the neck, killing it.

The dragons both look at the Phantom. Thel was right, it was the only way out of here.

"Can you fly?" the black dragoness turned to Spyro.

"Yeah, let's go" Spyro took to the air, as well as Cynder.

"Ok, follow me in" Cynder took the lead.

They both flew straight at the Phantom, desperate to get out of this battle zone. The pilot was too caught up trying to kill the grunts. For small imbeciles, they sure knew how to avoid death.

"Little, defying runts! How are you still alive after what we did to you with the Seraphs?" the pilot was getting a little angry. Little did he know, Cynder was already behind him. She smirked, having the element of surprise. Wanting to play with this Brute, she had an idea that will give her and Spyro a good chuckle.

"Hey, you" she disturbed the Brute's shooting, pissing him off even more.

"Ung! what? uh..." the Brute turned his chair and just suddenly noticed the dragons right in front of him. He was unarmed, not being able to do anything now.

A moment later, Cynder blew him off the Phantom with a bit of her wind element. He roared as he was sent flying into the air and crashing on the hard ground. The dragoness looked for Thel, who was still combating Brutes at close range. He was getting real tired of fighting them, Vadam's exhaustion will be his demise the way things are going.

"Arbiter! c'mon!" she shouted out to him.

Killing the Brute he was just fighting, by literally pulling its heart out, he heard Cynder's call and he made a mad dash for the Phantom, which the gravity lift just activated. The Grunts also heard the call and they made a run for the Phantom too, not wanting to stay here any longer.

"TO THE DROPSHIP!" Yapflop yelled.

Shin gave them all cover fire whilst they ran to the ship. Quickly, he grabbed the focus rifle nearby and threw it up into the Phantom, not leaving a very powerful in Brute hands. Spyro jumped out of the way as the rifle landed next to him, through the left side doors. As Shin turned though, as he was about to fire, a spike landed in his chest, through to one of his hearts. Feeling the searing pain, he coughed up a bit of blood, Sangheili blood. As Thel was finally inside the dropship, he looked down on the battle zone and saw Shin falling to his knees.

"No...NO! SHIN!" Arbiter called out the minor classed elite.

"They, they got me. HURK!" Tarscar was shot by another spike, followed by another. The Brutes got him where they wanted the elite. The surviving Jiralhanae fired in a line, shooting at the injured elite. Spikes landing and missing, Shin dropped his weapon as more sharp objects landed in his chest and belly, as well as the legs and arms. The Grunts looked down, watching in horror as their leader was slowly getting killed.

"NO! NOT SHIN! HE WAS MY FRIEND! NOOOOO!" Jabjab saw dropped to his hands, about to cry.

Shin could see his life passing by. His blood was spilt all over his armour. The Brutes stopped firing, thinking that the elite is done for. Tarscar looked at both his hands, dark purple stained all over his palms. The sight was unbearable for him. His vision started to blur slowly. He tried to speak a few more words.

"So this...this must be it...my time comes to an end...here, on this amazing planet. What a way to die in honour" he made a weak smile.

Spyro and Cynder watched as their elite friend slowly died. The dragoness couldn't watch anymore and buried her head into Spyro's shoulder, put his right wing over her. Shin looked up at the Phantom. He could see that they couldn't leave without him. Before his life would come to end, his last words were;

"Thel! Don't let them win. Don't let those savages destroy the dragon's city. Don't let them kill Cynder...Don't let them destroy Sangheilios! May honour guide your path...Arbiter" Shin then saw images of his entire life.

Images of the covenant war, images of Sangheilios, even images of his time on the dragon homeworld. Everything. The last one was an image of him and a female elite that he's comforting , who was a little shorter than him and much thinner. This female was no doubt his mate. He never told anyone this. Maybe he shouldn't have too. Suddenly, a spike landed in his neck, severing the windpipe and killing Shin Tarscar in that instant. He fell back and blacked out, leaving this universe forever. Thel was beyond anger and grief. Shin, one of his friends and a survivor from the Shadow, dying right there. It has scarred him deeply into his mind…very deeply

"SHIN!" he called out to his dead friend. Everyone's friend at the very most…

Jabjab saw a plasma turret at the edge of the door. He didn't resist to use it on the Brute survivors. He ran to it and aimed at all of those vile beasts, with a swift flurry of vengeance.

"YOU GIANT, BULLYING...MONSTERSSSS!" Jabjab cried out, firing the plasma turret all over the area.

Blue plasma rained from the sky, burning and killing the Brutes below. They all roared and screamed as they tried to get but it was a useless gesture. Jabjab was not going to let this down. Yapflop decided to jump onto the Phantom's control and pilot this thing himself. Jabjab stopped firing as he saw most of the Brutes now laying dead. He has never been this angry in his life, and for good reason. The side doors on both ends of the ship closed. They have escaped from the Brute's hairy clutches, but at a huge price. Magnaruckus heard was covering his left eye, which Cynder scarred, but he watched the Phantom fly away in both victory...and defeat.


	26. Shin's aftermath

In the circular field, large groups Phantoms arrived to clean up the situation that has recently be drawn up. Magnaruckus' Brute pack has been completely decimated, leaving only 4 survivors besides himself. The Chieftain was severely injured, having suffered many blood stained scratches on his back, complementary of Cynder's claws, and 3 scar lines going down diagonally, across his left eye, also created by the black dragoness herself. He also felt strong pains in his best, probably broken ribs from when Spyro rammed straight into his chest. The surviving Brutes had suffered either spikes landing in non-lethal areas or plasma burns. They limped to the dropships to receive medical aid, but ones that had just arrived on the scene jumped off the craft to help their respected chieftain. The only war chieftain, a rank just before Magnaruckus' title, ran to Magnaruckus and got under his right arm to lend support.

"Sire, you're wounded, what the hell happened here?" the war chieftain asked his pack master, wondering how all this was caused. Magnaruckus put pressure on his broken chest, using his other arm.

"The freak flyers! the Sangheili! the Grunts! They all fought as one against us! Ung! THEY'LL ALL SUFFER NOW!" the Brute leader despised them all, thirsty for vengeance for this outrageous attack made by the small Sangheili resistance team.

"Who were they? do you ever catch their names?" the brown armour wearing Brute continued his questioning.

"Grr...If I remember correct, I heard the Arbiter shouting out the black freak flyer's name, Cynder if I recall! She, along with Thel Vadam, will die for what she has done to me!" Magnaruckus slowly limped over to one of the dropships. still with the war chieftain giving his aid.

"Cynder? you mean the black one did this to you?" he was surprised that something so small and a little scrawny was able to damage like this to the mighty Brute chieftain, staring at his leader.

"No, she only gave me the scars and scratches Jikartus. The purple freak flyer, which I swear he was completely black and having white eyes for a few moments, rammed me right in my chest! Argh! and I think he broke a few ribs as well!" the chieftain admitted that Spyro was quite strong, despite the fact Magnaruckus called the dragon race a low and weak species.

"So, the freak flyers are a dire threat then?" Jikartus continued to get his chieftain back to the awaiting Phantoms.

"I wouldn't say dire, but as much as I'd hate to admit it, they are strong race that needs to be dealt with. I have not seen many other freak flyers around this planet, so unless they're all hiding like cowards, their race is close to extinction. That Cynder must be the last female of their species. (Evil chuckling) Killing her should be able to eradicate any chances of repopulation" Magnaruckus wanted to kill Cynder with his bare hands, knowing that she is the Dragon's only hope of continuation.

"Sir, are you considering genocide of the freak flyer race?" Jikartus looked backed at him.

"Yes, as well as the Sangheili. I'll kill Arbiter and the female dragon personally, everyone else deals with the rest of the resistance" Magnaruckus huffed in pain. He looked to his right and noticed a dead elite. It was Shin, laying perfectly still on the ground, not breathing. The spikes was still in his body, as the Brutes didn't even bother taking them out.

"Huh, looks like one of them paid the price. Good riddance, blasted creatures!" Jikartus liked the sight of a dead elite, like the sick bastard he is. An idea suddenly popped into the Chieftain's mind, a devilish one. Stroking his chin beard, he smiled, exposing his bone breaking teeth in the process.

"Jiralhanae, collect that dead Sangheili's body! I want it aboard the 'Prophet's Vengeance' immediately" Magnaruckus turned and called out to a Brute minor ranked pack, grabbing their attention and becoming confused.

"Uh, forgive me chieftain, but...why? why can't we just leave it here so it'll rot and decay here" the lead minor shrugged his shoulders, looking back an. Maggy got a little annoyed by the unexpected question.

"Grr, just do as your told, and I want a full report about the elite's wounds as soon as my injuries are healed!" the chieftain demanded and continued to limp over to one of the dropships.

The minors looked at each other and shrugged their shoulders, doing what their leader ordered them to. Two of them got their way over to Shin's lifeless body. One grabbed his arms and the other held his legs and they both carried Tarscar onto one of the Phantoms. What Magnaruckus has planned for the deceased Shin is complete mystery to the Brutes, but as soon as his injuries heal up, all will be revealed in due time. While the Brutes clean up the mess, the Phantom that Arbiter and the others have stolen continue to make their return to Warfang. Although they've gotten Cynder back safe and sound, the loss of Shin has crushed the hearts and souls of the former Covenant warriors and the young dragons. Out of them all, Thel was the one most stricken with grief. He sat in the back right corner of the cargo hold, also known as the troop carrying area, covering his face to hide the tears. He saw Shim die in vain.

"He should've died at the crash. He wouldn't have to suffer like an animal then" he whispered to himself, feeling the guilt upon his shoulders.

Thel had his left leg up while the other laid down. He used his arms to cover his face so Jabjab, Spyro and Cynder wouldn't have to see him in his state. As tough as an elite might be, they can always crack, and Shin's death did the trick. Before Cynder would go over to Spyro to fully reunite with him in person, she wanted to help Thel get through this but one thing stopped her. The dragoness knew that Thel, Shin, Spyro and the Grunts were here to save her. They've accomplished that now, but they suffered Tarscar's loss and it might be her fault. If she didn't run away from the city, none of this would've happened and Shin would still be among the living, but that wasn't the case. Cynder sighed deeply, feeling sorrow for the elite who sacrificed his life for the others. She slowly made her way to Thel, who was still trying to wipe away his tears. She was hesitating, but she stopped in front of the Arbiter, noticing an eye water going down his left cheek and landing on his mandibles. To break the silence of grief, Cynder spoke her words clearly to mentally stricken Thel Vadam.

"Thel?" she called his name with a low tone of voice, trying to be as quiet as possible.

Vadam uncovered the rest of his face slowly, revealing the eye water that he has released. Parts of his face was almost drenched, even a bit of his mandible armour was reflecting light off from the tears. Cynder was surprised that she hardly heard any sobbing from him. His eyes tilted towards the dragoness, fully capturing his attention, but his motives and emotion was a little unknown. Was he furious with her? was he going to forgive her? she needed to know, and only her apologies can save her.

"I'm...I'm so sorry, about Shin. You all came to save me and it costed his life. If I didn't run away, none of this would have happened, but I let my motives get in the way. I didn't want any of this to happen" she bowed her head down in shame and sorrow, shedding a tear for Tarscar

The Arbiter stared at her, trying to wiping away what's left of his tears. He sighed, losing most of his breath, but he wasn't angry with the dragoness. Instead, he stroked the dragoness' cheeks with one of his fingers on the right hand, trying get rid of her eye water. She looked up at him, noticing his forgiveness to her. She couldn't believe it, her elite friend was not furious with her, but Thel did have something to say.

"Cyn, (exhales deeply), you don't have to apologise for what's happened tonight. Shin's death was not your fault. Those wretched Jiralhanae killed him in cold blood. They killed an honourable warrior, a friend to us all, and they took his life away. He knew, like the rest of us, about the risks before we went to search for you. He will be remembered as one greatest Sangheili warriors of our kind, and a sole survivor of the Shadow of Intent. May you rest in peace brother" Thel lowered his head down, closing his eyes and remembering the events he's had with Tarscar.

Cynder couldn't help but get Arbiter through this. She didn't want to see him in this state, losing a friend is just too hard on someone they knew. In an attempt to show Thel that he wasn't alone, she made a daring move and wrapped her arms and neck around his neck. She was hugging him, showing a true friendship towards the Arbiter, and comforting him as well. Thel's eyes widened by this act made by the dragoness but his two hearts warmed up as a reaction, seemingly enjoying this. Thel didn't want to make himself feel awkward, so to show Cynder he appreciated what she's doing, he raised his arms and hugged her, wrapping his arms around her back and gently stroking it between her wings and the base of her tail.

"I know he was an elite, but I miss him so much, (sniffs). It's my fault! (sob) I didn't mean any of this to happen! (sob) I-I...It's not fair!" Cynder was crying her emerald eyes out, already beginning to miss Tarscar. She held Thel tightly, not wanting to let go of him anytime soon. Thel gently patted her on the dragoness' sleek backside, calming her down.

"Shh, shh, Its alright, I told you it's not your fault. I'll miss him too and I know it ain't fair but...we have to move on...he would've wanted us to. And I promise, over my dead body, I will avenge his death by killing that overgrown Brute. He and the rest of the savages have crossed the line and they deserve no mercy, no pity. For now though, I have to finish what Shin started back at the city. The Locust has to be finished...for him" Thel for some reason still enjoyed contact from her. They were not of the same race, so it's a bit strange to comfort a creature from another world, but this was a different case. They're friends and that's all they'll ever be.

Cynder raised her head right next to Thel's and nuzzled his face with hers. His face was immediately stunned as a reaction. She kept her ivory horns at a distance so the young dragoness would not stab him in the eye. Cynder needed a good friend like Thel and he needed someone to help him through this time of sorrow. He knew that she was still blaming herself for this and he was trying everything to make her feel better. He placed his right hand on the back of her neck, stroking and caressing it. He still kept his head in place with hers, closing his eyes and enjoying the contact. Spyro was watching them from across the hold and he let them be. He knew both Thel and Cynder were in a state of sorrow and guilt, so he let the young dragoness be with the Arbiter for a few minutes. A moment later, Cynder pulled her head away from Thel and looked at him face to face.

"Thanks Thel. I needed a little company. I just still can't believe it" she bowed her head down, narrowing her eyes.

"It's alright Cyn. We'll miss him, especially me. He'll be honoured as a legend in my race. Speaking of which, I got a little title just for you, something I made" Thel smirked. Cynder's eyes widened, wondering what it was.

"A...a title? you mean like a rank?" she asked, wanting to know what it was. She never had a title before, let alone from another race.

"I do. From this night forward, in my eyes and everyone else's, I'm bestowing this title upon you. You are a Sangheili resistance saviour. You've saved my life from the Brute encampment, you carried Spyro to safety when he was injured, you led Darst, Shin and me to safety when our ship crashed. I wouldn't be here if it wasn't for you. I owe you my life" he put both his hands on her front shoulders, giving so much gratitude. Her mouth gapped, surprised to have this title.

"Th-thanks Thel, but you, Spyro, Shin and those Grunts risked your lives to save me and Shin died because of it. I don't deserve to have that rank Thel" she bowed her head down again.

"Yes you do Cynder, Shin knew the risks, he paid the price and we shall never forget him, but right now, we need to get back to the city. Everyone has to know about his death. Darst will surely want revenge. Your now the saviour of our resistance force, you're in charge of it if I'm not available. If something ever happens to me, can I trust you to lead our army against the Brutes?" Thel asked her one of the most responsible jobs ever given to her. The young dragoness had to think for a moment. It's a big job. Cynder has never led anything since being the terror of the skies. Her leadership skills may be a little rusty, but with Spyro by her side, this might work out. She smiled and lifted her head to look at Arbiter.

"You have my word Thel" she said in a warm tone. He couldn't help but put a polite expression in his face. Thel looked behind Cynder and saw Spyro laying on his stomach, almost about to fall asleep.

"I'll let you go now, I think Spyro needs a little company himself, and you haven't been with him for a while eh?" Thel pointed out for her. She turned around and noticed him there, all by himself. The Grunts were at the cockpit, Phantom. Cynder couldn't help but watch Spyro sleep so peacefully. She looked back at Vadam.

"Heh, I guess so. Thanks Thel, for everything" she raised her head back up to his and gave him a small lick to his left cheek, putting a small little blush on his face. He was about to wipe it away, but then decided not to.

He got up to take a look outside, pressing the switch to activate the left side doors. When they fully opened, he hang on to the side so he wouldn't chance falling off. It was still a cold night, hardly any clouds could cover the sky darkness, with the stars still everywhere. Thel's smile slowly wore off as he started to miss Shin again. He checked behind him to see that Spyro was already awake, thanks to a cuddling dragoness, kissing and licking the purple dragon's face. He thoroughly enjoyed, letting Cynder smother all over him. She wrapped her arms around his neck and continued show her love towards him. She actually moaned pleasure, enjoying this little fest so much. Even Spyro started feel the pleasure she was having, nuzzling and her kissing her. She rested her head on his neck, fully reunited as they were before.

"I love you Spyro. I promise to never leave you again. Thank you for saving me" she wrapped her tail around his. Spyro placed a wing over like he always did with her, but was concerned about one thing.

"You still love me, even though I turned into that...dark part of me?" he turned to her, with a sort of a sad facial expression.

"Yes I do, I don't care about it. You have good reasons for it to happen, and Magnaruckus trying to kill me was one of them. I know you will never hurt anyone we know so well. Just promise that you will help me through this leader thing, I've lost most of the skills of leadership since my past" she begged for his assistance. Spyro couldn't help but smile.

"I promise. And I love you too" he brought her even closer to himself. She was enjoying the warmth.

Arbiter smirked at the couple. He looked back at the open world and suddenly noticed a large, silver, burnt up object on the ground, a few miles away from the dropship. He gasped in shock of the sight. It's been a few days ever since he's seen the last surviving elite assault carrier of the war. The smoking ruins of the Shadow of Intent was still here. The Brutes haven't even blown it up yet to eradicate what's left of the ship. He couldn't see the bodies of the from this altitude though and Thel hoped that the Brutes had gotten rid of them, or the corpses would still be there...in a skeleton form, which would no doubt give Thel nightmares for the rest of his life. He wondered if the Shadow had anything onboard that would help the resistance, but there was only one way to find out. He ran up to the grunts cockpit, scarring Spyro and Cynder out of their little love fest. The Grunts looked back the Arbiter walking up to them.

"Yapflop, take the ship down to the Shadow, I need to see if there's anything that we can salvage from it" he ordered the orange armoured Grunt.

"B-but we need to get back to the-" Yapflop was cut off by the Arbiter's demanding voice.

"Don't question, take us down dammit!" he repeated himself.

Jabjab and Yapflop both shrugged their arms and did as their told. The Phantom turned left and descended through the clouds. What the Shadow could have onboard might decide the fate of the final battle.


	27. Return to Shadow

The Shadow of Intent. The last known Sangheili vessel to survive the battle of the Ark. A symbol of freedom and salvation for its owners. Not anymore. The carrier was almost nothing more than a pile of huge scrap metal, rusting in the middle of nowhere. Even days after the crash, some parts of the ship were still releasing smoke, including the large engines, the main head of the ship and many other spots, especially where the Jiralhanae cleansing beam hit the ship, right in the belly. The Phantom descended from the sky to have a better look at the wreckage. Thel's face darkened at the sight. He remembered this amazing ship fighting through the war, fighting from human ships to Brute ships, even Flood infested vessels. All those memories started coming back, even seeing images of the crew. The many Sangheili that wished to finally head home, but the Brutes ruined everything with their surprise attack. Now, they're all dead, never to see home again.

Jabjab waddled from the cockpit to look at the Shadow's grave, knowing that he might as well pay his respects to the lives that were lost on the ship...as he did control one of the plasma cannons on the Brute Cruiser. He didn't want to tell Thel that, otherwise he might be thrown overboard by him. Spyro and Cynder were already up to look at the once mighty ship. Cynder slowly shook her head, feeling sorry for the elites. Spyro was almost in awe, the size of the vessel was just magnificent to him, but to the both of them, it's sad to realise that Arbiter was once a part of the crew of this ship, as well as Darst and Shin was, but seeing your destroyed ship and knowing that half the people he knew on the Shadow are now gone from this universe. It's even more painful to Thel himself. Yapflop then decided to break the moment.

"Hey! why are we here? what are we doing?" he questioned Thel, ignoring the fact the elite was in command.

"Why? I'll tell you why you little runt! If we're going to have a better chance of surviving the battle tomorrow, everything that is still intact in the Shadow needs to be salvaged. A power core for the Locust, more weapons, anything and everything" Thel explained the reason to be here. Yapflop gave out a low moan, not wanting to be here anymore.

"So...this is how you got here?" Spyro looked at the Arbiter, now seeing what an Assault Carrier actually looks like.

"Well I wouldn't have ended up here if it wasn't for Magnaruckus and his Brute laggy's but yeah. It's so good to see her again but...she isn't how I remembered her from the war. A noble vessel the Shadow was" poor Thel lowered his head, almost emotionally distraught to see the ship now nothing but scrap metal. Cynder could see the sorrow in his eyes. His state has shrunk back to when he saw Shin die and it caught her attention.

"Are you alright Thel?" she asked her tall, 4 mandible friend. It took a moment before her voice got to the Arbiter, lifting his head up and looking at the dragoness.

"Yeah...yeah, I'll be fine. Cynder, stay with Spyro and Jabjab on the ship. Only I know the Shadow inside and out. I know every detail of it. You'd all get lost navigating through the damn vessel" and the Arbiter was right. Although the damage has been done to the ship, it still had most of its structure intact. No major parts of the Shadow ripped off during its flight going through atmosphere so roaming around the interior of the vessel should be done with moderate ease, but Cynder, Spyro or Jabjab would not be able to easily find an exit without remembering where the entrance was.

"Are you sure? Couldn't we just follow you?" Jabjab suggested. Arbiter widened his eyes. He felt a little stupid not even thinking that. And coming from Jabjab...really?

"Uh, yeah I guess so, but its best to play it safe. Only one of you can come" he turned to the three of them. Which one was willing to follow Thel into the remains of the Shadow. Cynder was the one most egging to come along, wanting to see what the inside of a Sangheili assault carrier looks like.

"Eh, forget it, I'll stay with the dropship" Jabjab went to sit in a corner, not bothering with this little mission. Arbiter was a little relieved to see little Jabjab wasn't coming along, he would've been a handful anyway.

"You can go Cynder. I'll stay here, keep an eye on the ship and the Grunts" Spyro let Cynder have this task. She turned to him, surprised that he's letting her go on a 'alien' ship. She smiled towards him.

"Thanks Spyro. Are you sure you want to stay with these idiots?" she raised a brow.

"I'm positive. Besides, someone's got to keep them from crashing this thing" he grinned.

"Hey, I heard that!" Yapflop yelled out, unhappy that both Spyro and Cynder bagged out the Grunts. They both got a little giggle and chuckle out of it.

"(sigh) it's like I'm trying to care if my own young here" Thel rolled his eyes, thinking that this is no time for jokes.

"Thel, let us have a little bit of fun, is that too much to ask?" the dragoness smirked at the Arbiter.

"Actually, yes it is. Now, are you done playing around?" he crossed his arms, waiting for a response. Cynder rolled her eyes, but she could understand why. Arbiter was quite sensitive about the protection of his race and seeing his destroyed ship doesn't help.

"Yea, when you're ready" she sat down on her haunches, waiting for Thel to prepare.

"Ok then" Arby went to pick the upgraded focus rifle that was laying down for the entire trip, the weapon that Shin use to weild. Placing it on his back, he needed to tell Yapflop where to go in order to enter the ship "Grunt, fly over to the head of the Intent, see if there's any large holes that me and Cynder can insert into" he ordered Yapflop.

"Ung, alright, you got it boss, but I do have a name" the orange Grunt reminded Thel. Arbiter could only shake his head.

"Grr, just do it, there's no time for this right now" Thel demanded.

"Ok, here we go...I'm really starting to get the hang of this flying business" Yapflop complemented himself. He tilted the ship to the lift, moving closer to the large head section on its port side.

The head from a more far away perspective, looked more like a giant hook with a neck that connects to the rest of the bulbous, sleek like body of the Sangheili assault carrier. It is hard to miss the small holes in the ship from when it was going through the planet's atmosphere. Black scars, plasma sparks, black smoke, all covered the exterior of the ship. The Phantom drew closer to the large hook head. Thel looked out the open side door to see his ship up close. He noticed a large hole that has breached right into the Shadow. It was too dark to see in there but he had to know what it was.

"That's our way in I'm guessing?" Cynder strolled right next to Thel, looking up at him.

"It is" he crossed his arms, answering her question but not turning to her.

"Whoa, creepy!" Jabjab described the dark room. The Phantom hovered right next to the large hole. It was situated close to the top of the ship, meaning that this could be a room that might lead to the bridge.

"Yapflop, I'm taking this little radio transceiver. If we find something of valuable interest, I'll contact with this thing. It's already connected with the dropship so if you see a blinking light, that's me. Do I make myself clear?" Thel called out the grunty pilot. He was able to acquire the transceiver at the cockpit's seat, little did Yapflop notice.

"Uh...yeah, yeah, right, um...ok!" Yapflop was pressing multiple holographic buttons, which were the controls. They were able to react to hands when touched.

"Just do us all a huge favour...DO NOT CRASH THE DROPSHIP!" Thel warned Yapflop. The orange grunt could gulp in fear.

"Yes boss" Yapflop froze.

"We're doomed" Jabjab shook his head.

"I'm not confident in your race's abilities Jabjab, it was the weakest branch of the covenant. That's one reason why I'm giving Yapflop warning and caution. Yes, you two did fight well against the Brutes, but if a Brute gets up close to you, your done for. You both need to find a position where you won't get hurt and your helping the resistance in one of the best ways possible" Thel suggested to them. It's true, a Brute will rip a grunt to shreds if it ever gets a hold of them. Jabjab scratched his chin and looked at the plasma turret on the side of the dropship and had a look at Yapflop controlling the Phantom.

"Hmm...I think we've already got that covered" Jabjab looked like he was smiling. Thel, Spyro and Cynder were a little confused. What position would they possibly cover Thel's suggestion. Then the Arbiter remembered how accurate Jabjab fired the plasma cannon at the Jiralhanae and Jabjab's first time piloting.

"(Sigh) the Phantom I'm guessing" Thel lowered his top eyelids halfway down, not very amused that the Grunts were in full control of the dropship.

"Yep! now, I'm sure you and Blacky have a job to do so get moving...sir!" Jabjab ordered his superior officer. Thel slowly exposed his teeth and clenched his fists. Taking orders from the grunts in charge of the Phantom...how stupid was that.

"Let's go Cyn...I'm done talking to these idiots for now" Thel turned away, calling the black dragoness . She looked at Thel, who was about to jump from the dropship to the hole.

"Uh Thel, if you jump through there you might-" she watched the Arbiter make his jump. His leg muscles were much stronger faster than any humans strength and speed. He grunted as he lifted off into the large hole. He successfully made it, but he yelled as it sounded like he was falling. A loud bang was made by the end of his fall.

"Ow" was Arbiter's signal to tell the dragons and the grunts he was ok, for the most part anyway.

"-End up falling" Cynder finished her sentence in a mild mood, "(Sigh) alright, I better get going then" she turned to Spyro.

"Ok. Just don't get lost in that thing" he cautioned her.

"Heh, you worry too much. I'll be back before you know it...that is if Thel has brought a bit of light with him...and he hasn't broken a leg" she turned at the hole.

"Grr...ok, Cynder! hurry up!" Thel called out for her.

"I'm coming! See you a little later Spyro" she said her goodbye to the purple dragon, but not before she gave him an affectionate kiss on his left cheek, leaving a small blush on his face.

She turned away from him to look at the hole. She was about to enter a totally different place. Even though the ship has crashed on her planet, to her, entering the Shadow of Intent will be like going to a new world that she has never explored. Hopefully, not everything will be as dark as the room Thel's in. Taking a deep breath, Cynder took off into the breached area, entering a new world of technology. Spyro watched his dragoness fly through it, hoping to see her again. He suddenly had the feeling of being watched. He spun around to see Jabjab with arms crossed, having angry expression on his face.

"Since me and Yapflop own the dropship, you now take orders from us while Arbiter is gone, so now you...uh... you keep an eye for the enemy. Keep an eye out for uh, big Brute things" Jabjab wasn't very good at being leader, heck, there weren't many Grunts that became in charge during the war. Maybe the Grunt rebellion before the Human-Covenant war but that's it.

Spyro shook his, thinking that there is no hope for these two Unggoy, but as the dropship moved away from the breached hole of the ship, he did as he was told and kept a look out for any unwanted guests. It was unknown when they'll be back, but hopefully, Thel gets what wanted from the ship.

Inside, Cynder landed on the floor smoothly, unlike what Thel copped from the fall. She could barely see anything, the room has lost, not even a spark was made. Suddenly, a flash of light went straight into her eyes, blinding and covering with her wings. It pulled away to see Thel, who had the flashlight equipment on his left shoulder armour. He was holding the focus rifle, as it can produce a bit more light from the interior of the weapon itself.

"Argh! geez! you blinded me with that thing!" Cynder complained, uncovering herself from her wings and folding them in.

"Sorry, I forgot this ain't no ordinary flashlight, it's enough to blind you for the rest of your life" the Arbiter apologised.

"Alright, just don't point it at me again" she asked, taking a look around the dark room, "so, what's the plan then?" she wanted to know.

Thel moved his body around to look at the dark areas and the places that were lit by his flashlight. This room looked like a corridor, which is basically only used for getting around the ship.

"The bridge should be nearby. I want to go there first. It's been a while since I've seen her now" Thel has missed the Shadow a lot since he, Darst and Shin left with Cynder to escape the crash site.

"I meant what do you want us to salvage? what do you really need?" she asked him.

He looked around again. Weapons was the first thing on his mind, which was in the armoury and that was somewhere in the head of the ship. Thel remembered that he saw so many elites die from where he woke up, but he never got the chance to search for survivors. Hopefully, he and Cynder will find someone who has survived the crash. Another thing that came is that the gargantuan hanger that the ship has might have any vehicle parts. It's imperative that a Locust power core is recovered to bring Shin's creation to life, as well some operational Ghost craft or Spectre attack vehicles, or anything for that matter. Thel now knew what he and the dragoness had to do.

"What we'll do first is head to the bridge, see if we can get some power back online. After that, we need to get to the armoury, that's where most of our weapons should be" he explained to her, whilst forcibly opening a door "Then, we'll head for the hanger. A power core has to be found so that our Locust back at the city will be ready for the forthcoming battle, and hope that some ground or air vehicles will be operational. By the way, while we move to these areas, keep an eye out for survivors. I never got to search for anyone else after the crash. It's a Carrier, there has to be someone else who made it through alive" Thel finally got the door opened for the both of them, which leads to Shadow's bridge.

"Ok, first; power then weapons then vehicles and any elites that survived the crash. That should be easy. I hope you know where to go?" she looked at him before going through the hall beyond the this room.

"Just follow where I point the light. I know the ship back to front, then back again. So...ladies first" he insisted Cynder. She gave him a friendly smile before walking through the door. She wanted to be in front to get a first look at this technological achievement of the Sangheili.

Where Thel pointed the light, she noticed that the Shadow's material that was used to build her was so smooth, but very hard. Even the floor was smooth and clear with a purple and blue tint in it but when she looked closer, there were small hexagons almost everywhere, which makes up the whole place. Cynder tread upon a work of art, war and a technology that is far beyond what is used on the planet which the Shadow has crashed on. She would really like to see what Thel's home planet would look like. Cyn would love to see it.

"Arbiter, this place is amazing! I, I can't believe your race can build something like this! it's so carefully designed!" Cynder was in awe. Thel was surprised that Cynder was interested in Sangheili architecture.

"It took us very long to build this ship, I'm glad you like it. It would've been more outstanding under better circumstances though, this place is now a wreck" Thel was ashamed to say.

"Arbiter, even though won't be able to work again, it's still marvellous! you and the other elites should be proud that you made something like this" she praised the ship and its owners.

"Well...if you say so. C'mon, the bridge shouldn't be far" Thel followed close behind her through the hall, pointing the light directly in front of them.

After a few moments of sightseeing (for Cynder anyway), they both came upon an already open door. It looks like it malfunctioned during the crash so it wouldn't close. When Thel pointed the light around the room, it was revealed to be plasma battery room. There were 4 enormous energy weapons, that were not in working order, all in a line and aiming outside the ship. This was one of the small battery rooms around the ship's head.

"And this place Cyn...this just made for war...not anything else" Thel told with a somewhat sad voice.

She looked at him, noticing that he didn't like this room. It was no doubt used in the war, not forgetting that it was also used against the Brute Cruiser that won it's battle against the Shadow, but losing Carrier ally.

"Grunty guy 25 to Arbiter, come in Arbiter, are you there?" Yapflop called Thel on the small radio transceiver, which placed on his left wrist. He sighed, knowing that this could be one of the many annoying calls made by the Unggoy.

"Just use your own damn name Yapflop, what do you want?" Thel raised his arm to talk into the transceiver. Cynder came in front of him to hear what they were both saying.

"Whatever, could you please tell me where you guys are?" Yapflop politely asked. Thel looked around then answered back.

"We're in one of the battery rooms, moving closer to the bridge to turn some power back on, the lights should still be online...hopefully. Where are you flying around?"

Uh, we're high above the big ship, just at the back. So far, no Brutes have followed us or found us. Hey, how ya doin Arby?" Yapflop asked, trying to make conversation.

"Arbiter out. I can't be bothered talking with the runt" Thel cut Yapflop off at that moment and continued moving through the room, passing by the plasma batteries.

Cynder decided to follow close behind him. She didn't take the time in looking at those weapons because Thel had to get to the bridge as soon as possible. They both didn't want to wander the ship in the dark that has lost many souls from a few days ago, it would be like walking around a ghost ship then.

**Sorry that I haven't updated in a while, I recently bought a game called Mass Effect 2 and I've been spending some hours on it. It's pretty good, I would recommend it, but only if you're the patient, cinematic type. I'm really aiming for 40 or 50 reviews or more for this story, that'd be awesome, but I don't force people to do it, like I said before. I'm writing the next chapter right now and hopefully the wait won't be as long as this one and more of the Shadow can be explored. **


	28. More survivors

Thel and Cynder continued their journey through the Shadow of Intent, heading into what's left of the great ship. The last room they left was one the vessel's small plasma battery rooms, used for defending one of Intent's vital areas, the head itself. The captured Jiralhanae Phantom, now owned by the Grunts, flew high above the wreck, keeping an eye for Brutes and any other unwanted beast. Jabjab sat in the corner waiting for something interesting to happen while Spyro sat just at the edge of the open side door of the dropship, waiting so patiently for Cynder's return. Although he can't see her, he can no doubt smell her from miles, thanks to her pheromones as she is starting to come into heat, they just seemed so intoxicating to him. He still had to tell her about it, warn her that as the pheromones get stronger, she will be harder to resist. He almost lost it when she smothered all over his face, luckily, he kept control of his instincts...for the most part though. Yapflop's first time flying a Phantom dropship was going brilliantly successful. He was getting a hang of the controls, as well as becoming a wary pilot. As dumb and stupid he was, he can show that Grunts can be good at anything, except trying to be taller than a Hunter.

Thel and Cynder have made good progress going through the ship. They have been through many halls, corridors and many other twists and turns. They've even passed many other gun battery rooms. Unfortunately, no survivors have been found yet, which saddens Thel, but there is a good thing to that; they both haven't passed any dead bodies, which gives Thel hope that someone has survived. He led young Cynder through these rooms, sometimes even giving her time to sight see the ship. After coming around a few corners, they came to a door, which was closed shut.

"Do you remember what this room was?" Cynder looked up at Thel.

"I do, it's one of the many crew quarters the ship has. It's where we rest, talk, eat and many other social moments. Basically, it mentally blocked us off from the war. Strange, this door has power" Thel stared at a holographic lock, which kept the door open or shut.

"Is that a problem?" the dragoness asked, staring at .

"No, it's just that the other doors we've passed have been either already opened, malfunctioned, damaged or ones I had to force open. Not one we've encountered so far is where I had to press a single button" he was wondering why the door still had power. Was the bridge already giving it out?

Thel slowly raised his rifle, becoming prepared for anything behind this door. Cynder knew Thel was getting wary about what was behind this door and she did the same. If something was behind it, they were ready for anything. The Arbiter moved his right hand from the under barrel of the focus rifle to the holographic lock and a button moved forward, reacting from Thel's finger. It opened quickly, revealing a lit crew quarters room and an elite jumping from behind a couch closest to the door and shooting a needler at them. Having no time to react, the needle impaled Thel's shoulder, roaring in pain, dropping the rifle and forced down on the floor. Cynder watched him fall on his back, horrified that Thel has been shot by a painful crystal of death. The elite that fired the weapon was shocked and surprised. He shot one of his own by accident.

"Thel, are you ok?" she was seriously worried for him. He sat up and moaned as a reaction

"Nrr! by the gods! what was that for you fool?" Thel looked at the elite.

"S-Shipmaster! You're alive!" the elite. Suddenly, many other elites got up from the furniture; 2 others next the Sangheili with the needler, 1 each from 4 chairs and 3 from another couch.

"Yes I'm alive! Agh, I hate needles!" Thel pulled the crystal spike out of his shoulder and threw it at a wall, causing a small explosion of pink mist.

"You shot one of your own kind! How could you!" Cynder turned to the elite survivors becoming aggressive towards them.

"What is that thing?" a blue armoured elite from behind a chair stared at Cynder, wondering what she was.

"I-I didn't mean to, I thought you two were Brutes, I swear I didn't mean to shoot you" the blue armoured, and armed, Sangheili explained his reason, but it wasn't enough to convince the Arbiter.

"No excuses! All of us have been trained to identify the target before opening fire in case its friendly! YOU DIDN'T CHECK YOUR TARGET! If we were in a better situation, I would personally execute you for that!" Thel was furious that he's been shot by one of his own kind, knowing that each Sangheili has had more training than any human would, that means friendly fire is very rare within their military infrastructure, and doing so will result in death. Cynder was suddenly shocked by Thel's attitude towards this elite.

"Arbiter...did you really mean that?" she sounded like her heart was broken. Executing one of your kind might hit one of her nerves. Thel glared at her, knowing that sometimes, the Sangheili execute one of their own...and Cyn didn't like that one at all.

"Tesk, you idiot! You shot our Shipmaster!" the red armoured elite pointed at this nervous blue one. This one was the highest ranked of all these Sangheili, one was red, the others were just plain blue armoured.

"I-I just said, I didn't mean to, you know I'm new to the crew captain!" Tesk Raskar was some kind of rookie to the Shadow's crew, which might explain his age. He was just a teen in Sangheili years.

"I don't ca-" the captain was interrupted by Thel's voice, just as he was getting up and covering his bloody wound.

"Wait a second. You're new?" Thel's attitude suddenly changed. He wanted to know about the teenager.

"Ye-yes Shipmaster, I enlisted a few months ago. I was tasked to be a part of the Shadow of Intent. By the time I got to High Charity, tensions between us and the Jiralhanae were increasing" Tesk explained.

"He means he joined just before the Great Schism my Shipmaster. I give the young one credit for being recruited at the time and surviving the battles after High Charity, but he still has much to learn" the red armoured captain glanced Tesk, notice that he only had his right hand, the other had been forcibly ripped off, no doubt Brute work, showing internal organs like muscle, veins and a bit of bone, but no blood was coming. Maybe he's had it for a few weeks. Tesk was afraid of this elite.

"I see. I guess I can let you off this once Tesk, joining the covenant just before the Schism started was a blind move. May I ask what happened to your hand captain?" Vadam turned to the red armoured one handed Sangheili.

"Oh this? I was fending myself off from a berserk Brute during the battle for the Ark, ripped it clean off. I was just lucky to grab a sword on the ground and impale the beast before he did any further damage. As long as I can hold a weapon, it will not hinder my survival...much" the captain revealed his small secret. It was a horrendous site, there must have been a ton of blood loss for the captain, yet he still lives.

"Savages, what an experience to go through, I take you'll never hold a large rifle then?" Thel wondered. The captain shook his head, but happily grinned.

"As long as I can hold a sword or small hand held ranged weapon, I'm good. It shouldn't drastically affect my combat skill, hopefully" this elite's voice was almost as deep as Darst's was, but unlike the zealot, he doesn't sound like he has a frog in his throat. Tesk spoke a light voice, close to the Human teen voices, but he more shy and scared than Shin ever was before crashing on this planet.

"Well, one handed or not, friendly fire or not, I can't tell how much I'm pleased and relieved to see more survivors! What's happened in the past few days?" Thel asked his comrades.

"We don't know Shipmaster, our group has been staying in this crew quarters the last few days. Apparently, one day after the Shadow plummeted into the ground, a few Jiralhanae were skulking around the crash site, looking for survivors. Fortunately, they never planned on entering this. We heard them, shouting, yelling, roaring, even howling. I knew if we stepped outside this room, we'd be dead by now" so Brutes have scavenged around only parts of the ship.

These Elites didn't know what parts, they only that they were here. Thel nodded, knowing that's all the info he's going to get from them. He turned back to Tesk. Raskar felt the shame come upon him. he thinks that Thel is still going to punish him for his incompetence, but the Arbiter was not a hot tempered person, unlike what Brutes and some Sangheili are.

"Sir, I'm still sorry for shooting you! I thou-" he was cut off by his Shipmaster.

"Don't apologise young one, I understand that you've never seen much combat. Surprising though, most of us fought during the battle for the Ark" Vadam was a little confused. He thought that every Sangheili was a part of a battle during the Ark, but this squad didn't see combat on Installation 00.

"Do you need that healed up Arbiter?" Cynder asked, concerned for Thel's wound.

"It should be right, just a scratch, or a big needle. I seriously hate needles though" Arby must really hate the doctors then.

"Ok, good, but I want to have a little chat with you in a minute" she narrowed her eyes, wanting to know why Thel was threatening to execute Tesk at first. Thel knew that she wanted to talk about it, having a grim facial expression to react.

"A 4 legged winged beast that can talk? I've never seen anything like it!" A blue armoured elite came out from a chair closest to the black dragoness, but he wore a Spec ops helmet, as well as Spec ops armour, but the colour was a bluish purple, not a silver like most Special Operations Sangheili wear. Cynder's eyes widened in surprise as the Spec ops elite got closer to her. She stood frozen, wondering what it was going to do to her.

He crouched down to her height, kneeling on the smooth floor. Thel reacted with force.

"Get away from her, she's with me Spec ops" he threatened the Spec ops, trying to protect Cynder.

"Sorry, I never seen any creature like this one that has wings, has 4 legs and can talk. I've travelled around the galaxy and never have I seen beast like this one that can talk" the masked Sangheili was amazed by Cynder's attributes and looks, but she took the word 'beast' as an insult.

"Hey, I'm not a savage creature! Don't call me a beast!" she warned him, backing up closer to Thel for protection.

"And it has feelings...interesting" the Spec ops stood back up on his feet.

"Speak your name damn it, you had no permission getting close to Cynder like that" the Arbiter demanded to know the name of the Spec ops elite.

"My name is Ras'skar Shenko, Special Operations division. Before I became this rank, I was part of reconnaissance team and I had to study the different species and plants of a newly discovered planet, as well as relay information back to the fleet of enemy base locations. In my years, I've never seen a creature like this 'Cynder' as you call it" the Spec Ops stared back at her. The mask was plain evil, with the eye lights just shout out fear to her. Thel didn't like Ras'skar, but for good reason.

"If you may or may not recall Ras'skar, do you remember the small rivalry the Arbiters and Spec Ops had? After the Grunt rebellions, one of your other members planned on assassinating the Arbiter that negotiated with the Unggoy near the end of the war, because you just wanted to get rid of them completely! After that little failure, I've never trusted the Spec ops rank, especially since I'm now the Arbiter" Thel's eyes narrowed down, staring face to face with Shenko.

"That was decades ago and yet, you fools are still complaining about that? Whelpling!" Ras'skar mocked Vadam, only receiving a low growl from him. Cynder, although she didn't like Ras'skar as much as Thel did, she was learning bits about the Sangheili military history. Vadam didn't trust Ras'skar, but right now wasn't the situation to handle this.

"Ok, enough of this. Right now, I want all of you to find a way off this ship. A Phantom is hovering overhead, so as soon as you get moving, I'll call it in. Me and Cynder are going to salvage this ship as much as we can, turn some power back on and we'll meet you later on" Thel ordered the survivors, but the red captain had a question.

"Wait Shipmaster, would you need any help with that?" he questioned his leader.

"No, just me and the dragoness, and don't call me Shipmaster anymore, Arbiter or Thel is just fine. Now, no more questions, get moving, I want to leave quickly myself" he pointed at the door, losing his patience.

The captain nodded and took the lead of the group, with Tesk right behind him. The other low ranked elites followed close behind Tesk, having Ras'skar at the back of the pack, but Ras'skar looked back at Thel, both meeting eye contact. Something wasn't right about Ras'skar, but this wasn't the time to think about it. He turned to Cynder, having a somewhat disgruntled look on his face. Thel went back to pick up the focus rifle he dropped moments ago when he was shot and returning back in front of Cynder.

"Well, I should be happy that others survived the crash, but..." Thel looked back at the leaving group, as they turned a corner, disappearing from his sight.

"You should be, they're your kind and you might as well be pleased that they survived such a scarring experience. Although, on an extent, I have to agree with your little faith about Ras'skar. Something just didn't seem right about him" she explained her thoughts about the group of survivors. Vadam nodded his head, having the same description as her.

"I don't think we should worry about him right now. He's an ally and that's that. But I want to know something Thel Vadam" she stared at him, like she was staring into his soul. Arby wondered why she was suddenly so furious towards him, watching her as she jumped onto a soft couch.

"Why were threatening to execute Tesk? I know he shot you, but by accident!" her voice rose. He didn't want to talk to Cynder about this, but he might as well let it out a bit of info.

"Well...you must see Cyn, the Sangheili are not the most peaceful race in the galaxy. Our punishments towards traitors, criminals and others alike are brutal and terrible towards them. We execute our kind because of their disobedience towards their leaders, placing shame, guilt and dishonour upon them. Some punishments occasionally are either donned to my rank, de-ranked normally or exiled. The rare ones are execution. Pl-please Cyn, can we not talk about this, I'm glad to see the Shadow again but I don't want to stay long. C'mon" Vadam wanted to drop this conversation completely and forget about it, but Cyn still had it on her mind.

"Yapflop, we found survivors so keep an eye on the ground, they'll be trying to find a way off the ship so keep a close eye on the ground, Thel out" He told the grunt on the transceiver.

"Ok Arbiter...now can we have a conv-" Yapflop was cut off before he finished his sentence.

"I don't think so runt" Arby mumbled. Cynder got a little giggle out of that moment but she still had that information on her mind.

She only knows about normal punishment for disobedience, a tiny bit about exile, but never has she seen anyone in the dragon city get executed. Maybe during her dark past but not the social society. She could only shake her head at this, letting out a long sigh. Maybe the Sangheili are not as peaceful and graceful as she first thought. Arbiter activated a door on the other side of the crew quarters that leads directly the bridge. There wasn't any weapons that the survivors left so nothing has been recovered yet. Cynder followed close behind him, going through another long, dark hallway.

On the way, they passed many other rooms. Some were other crew quarters but unlike the first one, they didn't have any survivors. Other rooms were more corridors and halls, but there were also rooms where elite armour was stored, but most of it was wrecked. After at least 20 minutes of walking through the giant ship, there has the horrific sight of blood stains on the smooth floor. Arbiter was disgusted by this sight. They were going through a long hallway that had Sangheili blood all over the floor, and what was worse, is that all of it lead to the bridge. Cynder tried to restrict herself from vomiting. She's seen blood before, but not like this. It was a sickening and disgusting sight. What was really on Thel's mind is why did all this lead to the bridge?

"Thel..." Cynder got very close to his side for protection, not wanting to see anymore dark purple, salty Sangheili excrement all over the floor.

"It's ok, c'mon, the bridge is just behind the door" Thel was brave enough to tread in the puddles of blood, but at least he wore something to keep it off his skin, Cynder is going to need a shower or a swim in a lake.

Finally, after wandering around the ship, they made it to the bridge entrance, but all the blood trails end right here. Why was that? Thel had to forcibly open this door. Placing the rifle on his back, Cynder watched as he used his strength to open the high tech entrance to the bridge. It took him a good minute but when he finally got it open, he came to realize why the blood trails ended here.

"(Gasp) Oh my ancestors!" Cynder shrieked. Her legs shook in fear, with her heart beating rapidly.

"By...the gods...who done this?" Thel's mandibles were dropped in horrific shock. His blood ran through his body with a shiver, with the hands shaking like crazy.

In front of the Arbiter and the Black dragoness was the bridge...with dead elite bodies in piles. The blood, the inner organs, the limbs, the dead crew of the Shadow of Intent has been scavenged. The bodies shown signs of decomposition, but some also revealed that chunks of the crew have been ripped apart by force, even eaten. There was also Sangheili skeletons around the place as well, still had some meat on them. It was a nightmarish sight. Thel fell to his knees. The crew has been mutilated. The captain said he heard the Brutes scavenging around the ship. This is what they'd done.

"Monsters..." Thel's voice was very shallow

**A couple of new characters, some other survivors...and a room filled with dead bodies. No wonder why there wasn't any bodies during their little tour through the ship. By the way, you probably noticed that some of the previous chapters have changed and here's why. Somehow , the first chapter mysteriously disappeared and for some stupid reason I had to re-upload the whole damn story again, that was a pain. Luckily, no one seemed to notice it. The story itself hasn't drastically changed, just some sentences had to be edited (chapter 1 for example). Anyway, that's number 28. I know the end is not quite far off but we'll see about that. 40 reviews has been hit, yay, I thought I'd get way less and I don't care if it was by the same person over and over again, a review is a review. Thanks a lot!**


	29. Mass grave

The crew...mutilated. The smell...unbearable .The sight...absolutely nightmarish for Thel Vadam and Cynder. This room was able to reveal how savage and monstrous the Jiralhanae are, how terrifying they can sometimes be. But ever since the start of the Covenant centuries back, the Jiralhanae has not done anything like this. Back then, they would torture their victims, make them suffer, kill them, and leave the bodies to rot. This though, this was entirely different. In his years, Thel has never seen murder like this, even during the Great Schism. Something has devoured the Brutes pack minds, infected them. Was it anger? Vengeance for their dead prophets? Were they still blinded by their lies? What was the Jiralhanae's motivations for doing this? It was just sickening. This...this wasn't like them. They've truly gone mad.

The Shadow's crew, the Arbiter's crew, was nothing more than flesh, blood and bone. Vadam was holding himself up, both hands on the blood stained floor, still on his knees. He's never seen his race get ripped apart like this. He just hoped that all these elites, his brothers and comrades, died in the crash. If they survived the crash...oh the horror. The truth will probably never be revealed, but this is what's left of the crew, and this only filled the Sangheili Arbiter with anger, rage and even more sorrow then what he had when Shin died. His whole body was trembling with fear.

Gone are the days, when the Shadow its crew fought the Brutes...no more. Thel lifted his hands and looked at his palms. Sangheili blood was on them, covering every part of the palms, stained with what's left of the crew. As much as she wanted to vomit, she set foot inside the bridge to go to her friend's side. This was almost exactly what she experienced during her past, the slaughter of your race. She covered Thel's back with her right wing, as his position that moment was levelled with her height. She comforted him as much as she could, knowing Thel is going through a phase that most individuals in the galaxy hardly endure, but both him and Cynder shared an equal experience.

"Thel...are going to be ok?" she caressed his backside with her wing, her head sided next to his.

"Gone Cynder...they're gone. What does the Jiralhanae have against my race? Why do they ravage us like this? I WASN'T BORN CENTURIES AGO TO KNOW THE ANSWER! SO WHY IS IT? WHY? I WANT A BLOODY ANSWER! WHY DO THEY ERADICATE US LIKE ANIMALS?" Thel slammed his fists in the ground with rage.

The fury welled up in his body, fuelled by the intention to annihilate the Jiralhanae. Cynder backed away by Vadam's angered voice. She spoke to soon when telling herself that she's never seen Thel in a state like this. This place revealed his true anger, his true intention to kill Magnaruckus and his lackeys.

"IF I EVER GOT THE CHANCE, I WOULD SEND A THOUSAND SUPER CARRIERS TO GLASS THE BRUTE HOMEWORLD, I WOULD STRIKE DOWN EVERY INHABITANT OF THEIR BLASTED PLANET, NOT JUST THEIR WARRIORS, I WOULD KILL EVEN THE FEMALES, EVEN THEIR BASTARD CHILDREN! I WOULD DESCEND THE JIRALHANAE INTO TOTAL EXTINCTION!" clenching his fists, the Arbiter was about to go mad with vengeance, with the desire to rip the Brutes apart chunk by large chunks.

Cynder noticed he was going mentally insane and she had to stop him, or all hell might break loose. She jumped directly in front of him, grabbing both sides of his head with her paws, holding the back of his mandibles, trying to keep the Arbiter still. They both caught eye contact with each other, staring face to face the fury driven Sangheili.

"Arbiter! I know what it feels like to see your own people die, I know how it feels to see someone close to you become a lifeless corpse! But if you ever did do those things to the Brutes and their home, you'd become what Magnaruckus is right now, a murdering psychopath bent on exterminating creatures that don't deserve what rest of their race has done! That's not the Thel Vadam that I've known these past few days, the one I know is a gentle, peaceful and honourable warrior of the Sangheili race, not a Brute or Grublin that enjoys killing the innocent just for the fun of it! I know you would never do that in both our lifetimes put together!" she was doing her very best to break through his mental state, reaching to his hearts and mind. It was working.

Thel's orange eyes stared into Cynder's emerald gaze of beauty and grace. She was desperate to bring him back to the real world, out of his foolish acts. For some reason, staring at the black dragoness seemed to calm him down. It wasn't her beauty that calmed him down, or the fact that this was a way of her holding him down. Maybe it was because she was his friend, one of her closest companions besides Spyro. She loved Spyro though, and he's probably going to become her mate in the future ahead of them, but Thel is still one of the closest friends she'll ever have in her lifetime.

Besides, Vadam has lost Shin and Rtas, both brothers in arms to him, and the Jiralhanae took them out of his life. The desirable protection to defend Sangheilios and defend Cynder to the death were the only things keeping him impaling himself with an energy sword. If the Brutes planned on killing her, Thel will not let that happen. He failed to protect Shin and Rtas, but it won't happen a third time. He die before they'd ever get their hairy palms on Cyn.

There were still signs of him trembling, but it wasn't as bad as it once was a minute ago. While still holding his head, Cynder rested her forehead against the front of his metal helmet, but behind those pieces of metal that makes him one ultimate warrior was really a peaceful Sangheili that has a soft spot for defending the people he holds closely, and will do anything to stop the Jiralhanae from annihilating them. He let out a gentle sigh, trying to enjoy a moment with the female dragon. She pulled away to stare face to face with him again, this time, he seemed more relaxed, calmed down...but the smell wasn't helping the mood.

"I need you to be here with me Thel. I need you to come out of this ship sane. It will never be like you to kill an entire species, even if they've done some terrible things to yours. If you try to kill an entire species, most will die that never even deserved it. That's not you. The one I know is kind to me, as well as to the rest of his race, and kinda has a soft spot for me" she smiled, but Thel raised a brow in total confusion. What the hell did she mean by soft spot?

"In the protective and caring way I mean, not the, you know, that we're both different species and well, that'd just be weird and-" she was suddenly cut off by the Thel's calm voice.

"Cyn, I care for you dearly, just not in that way. You have Spyro anyhow, I don't think you'll leave him for anyone else since you spend so much time around him" Thel told her, grabbing her paws and placing them back on all 4. She blushed a little. What was she thinking?

"But...thanks. You at least given me a bit of hope in this dark time. Your right. Magnaruckus and his fanatic army deserves it, not the rest of their race. I can't speak for all of my race about that, but at least I go by your words" he caressed his right hand down the back of her neck, and she enjoyed it more than she really should. Suddenly, a voice Thel's transceiver has been listening to every word the dragoness and Arbiter spoke of.

"Oh this is priceless, Jabjab, you should be hearing this! Thel and Cynder sitting in the Shadow, k-" Yapflop's voice was instantly cut off, stopping him from annoying the two.

"I thought I turned that off, little runt, I'm going to have a quick chat with him after this" Thel stood up, clenching his fists, but Cyn put a little smile on her face as a reaction from Yapflop's comment, thinking about what the runt said and giggled about it, but right now wasn't the time and she shook it off.

"Sorry if I lost my mind a bit. Just seeing my crew mutilated like this...I just...can't define the Jiralhanae's motives for doing this. Revenge? Fanaticism? or just for the fun of seeing us die like a wretched animal. It's this kind of thing makes me wish the Flood was here right now, they'd clean up the mess...most of it anyway" he thought. Cyn hasn't seen what a Flood looked like, but judging from what Thel told her, that's probably a good thing. The Arbiter glared at the piles of the deceased crew. He was mourning them, remembering them. They died for the survival of Sangheilios and its inhabitants. They shall never be forgotten.

"Rest peacefully...brothers" Thel bowed his head down for the fallen, honouring their long lost spirits, and Thel wasn't alone. Cyn did the same as he did, lowering her head for the dead warriors.

In the midst of the silence, Thel could faintly hear a strange, beeping sound. He looked up to see where it was coming from. Slowly, Cynder started to hear it too. Where was it coming from? It definitely wasn't Thel's transceiver device or one of the bridge's power systems. Thel looked back at one of the piles of dead elites, closest to the bridge's main power to hear the beeping coming from that area. What was it.

Turning to look at each other, they both knew they had to investigate it. Thel carefully traversed through the dead piles to get to that noise, moving as fast as he could. Since this was a large room, Cynder could simply take off and get to it first, but she respected the deceased, and this was one way to avoid causing any further disruption. Arbiter was skilled at traversing the piles. It just saddened him even more to see the piles from a different view now, but he shook it off and continued to track that beeping, but Cynder got their first.

After a brief 30 second run through half the room, quite close to the bridge's main console, and windows, Thel found Cynder frozen, just standing there total fear. He then knew why. Coming to stand next to her, the sound came from a data pad in the left hand of the deceased Rtas Vadum, Thel's first ever trusted and respected comrade during his entire Covenant and Separatist career. The sight was...unbearable for Vadam. A shallow gasp came over the elite.

Rtas had been ripped apart by the Brutes, his corpse seemed to be the most ravaged of all the bodies of the crew. His right arm has been almost ripped out of its socket, showing the blood, muscle and bits of the bone. A large chunk of his abdomen was taken out of him, revealing the inner organs, mostly the intestines, which were slowly seeping out, and his left foot was completely bare boned, leaving distinct blood signs. The rest of Rtas' body was bloodied, on his skin, face and armour, and that was his blood.

The data pad he had can produce recordings. How did Rtas even acquire a data pad if he already died at the crash. This was a bit of a mystery. While Thel could show the sorrow and vengeance in his expression, Cynder couldn't take no more and spun around to upchuck on the floor behind her and Thel. Vadam didn't blame her. It was a sickening sight. Disposing of her last dinner, she coughed terribly, almost losing all her breath, and wiped away what's left of her waste on her mouth. Now she really needed to take a shower.

"Sorry Thel, oh, that's going to scar me for life! I think that's Magnaruckus' work" she thought. To Thel, it had to be.

"Why chieftain...why did you do this? Rtas already left his body after the crash. What sick suggestion made you do this you savage!" Vadam was angered. Did Magnaruckus have any respect for the dead? Cyn then remembered this elite when she first found Thel, when he was mourning Rtas. Not the same way she remembered it, but was the same elite anyhow, that means,

"Thel...is this Rtas you told me about?" she looked up at him. He let out a sigh.

"It is. My most trusted brother throughout the Human-Covenant war, as well as during the Great Schism. Apart from the Spartan, Rtas was the most honoured warrior I ever fought side by side with. He had the same exact desire like I did, to annihilate the Brute traitors for spilling the blood of thousands of our race. He commanded the Shadow of Intent before I did. He's a survivor also, he fought Humans, then Flood, then the Brutes. So many enemies fell before his blade. I guess that's one reason why Magnaruckus did this, but he was already dead, why make things look uglier than it already is?" he wondered.

As much as he wanted to mourn and vow vengeance, he can't act the same way he just was a few minutes ago. Cynder won't be able to stop him again. He retained his sanity and took the data pad away from Rtas' cold, dead hand, honouring the deceased warrior, comrade...and brother of Thel Vadam and the rest of the crew.

"Rtas is gone...the Spartan is gone...the crew is gone...oh the horror" only Darst and those survivors are left of the Shadow, but Thel's most trusted companions and allies are all but a memory. Is Cynder the only one left he truly cared about that is still among the living?

"Maybe there's a clue to why Magnaruckus did this, maybe that thing's got the answer" Cynder suggested. Thel nodded, maybe the pad had the evidence Vadam needed to solve this. Putting in a small code, the pad revealed a recording, already to play. The pad was the size of Thel's hands, so the video was going to be in full view. He held in his left hand and got Cynder to hang onto his arm to watch the recording with him, standing on two legs like a dog. She could see it clearly now.

After a minute of buffering, and having the uneasy feeling that some of the bodies are looking at them with dead eyes, the video started playing. It was Rtas. He was alive. From the look of his state, he was injured, but he was still alive when this was made, that means only one thing.

"R-Rtas?" Thel stuttered in total shock and confusion. Cynder could see it in his expression. The video continued, only revealing Rtas' face with a dark background.

"(Sigh) I don't know if you'll ever find this, maybe those vile, disloyal beasts might have destroyed this before you find it, but still. Arbiter, or Thel if you'd like to call you that, I survived the crash of the Shadow. You probably thought I was already dead when you woke up, but I was only knocked out cold. By the time I came out of it, you were long gone. I knew there was no hope for me when I couldn't find anyone else alive inside the ship, let alone ones that were dead outside it. My right leg was broken and I wasn't able to walk. I dragged myself into the ship to find the bridge" Rtas' words mentally struck Thel with each hard blow. It wrecked Vadam to find out his most trusted and honoured friend was actually still alive at the time. Cynder continued to take up every word the former Shipmaster spoke.

"It took me half a day to get to the bridge, along the way, I found many of the crew dead. The way I took, I didn't find any survivors. Maybe there are some but, I'm too tired and too damn weak to find them. I'm a wreck, just like the ship. Now, when you do find this...do me, the deceased crew and the Shadow herself a favour to us all. When you're finished salvaging the ship, please go to the her engine rooms...and detonate the plasma reactor. It will cause the ship's engines to overheat, sending shockwaves throughout the ship. All major power systems will shut down completely, giving out no power to the main reactor in the cleansing beam room, and causing a chain reaction to all the smaller reactors throughout the ship. It will generate an cataclysmic explosion the size High Charity, disintegrating everything in a 17 mile radius. The land around it will be a wasteland, and there will be nothing left of the Shadow...everything will be gone" Thel and Cynder's eyes completely widened. Detonate Shadow's reactors? disintegration in a 17 mile radius?

"Rtas? the Carrier we had left from the battle of the Ark and the entire Schism! We can't-" Thel was cut off, by Rtas' next few words. This was a drastic measure.

"The Brutes are already here, salvaging the head part of the ship. Once they're done here, they'll probably soon come back to take the rest of it at the main area, and if they have those reactors, they'll have the technology to make Assault Carriers like the Shadow, and maybe even Super Carriers. They will we able to attack Sangheilios. A full on war between the Sangheili and the Jiralhanae, and our planet will pay dearly. Our history, our culture, all will be lost if they take those reactors. The Brutes will be in this room in a minute, they're coming, and they'll kill me. Vadam, you have to destroy the Shadow, salvage whatever you can then detonate that plasma reactor. I can hope you have found some survivors of the Shadow and maybe a few new allies along the way, but whatever you do; DESTROY THE SHADOW OF INTENT!" Rtas demanded this task. Thel couldn't even speak, he was too distraught from what Rtas is actually saying. He's never seen him act like this.

"These are my last words Thel, may honour guide you and your allies paths-" in sudden act, the doors behind Rtas open, revealing Magnaruckus and some Brutes carrying dead elite bodies. Thel knew what was coming, and Cyn would have to watch as well.

"Shipmaster Rtas Vadum, we thought you were dead! I think I better finish the job!" Magnaruckus cracked his fists, ready to kill Rtas where he stood.

"You will regret ever doing this chie-(static, recording cuts out)" there was nothing else after that, but it was obvious what happened to Rtas. The body said everything.

Instead of throwing the pad away, Thel gently placed it next Rtas' cold corpse. Almost every emotion overcame the grief stricken Arbiter. What was worst is that Rtas demanded the Shadow to be destroyed, he still couldn't believe that. Cynder decided that it was best if Thel had some time to himself, decided to go over to the main console of the ship, where it was positioned next to the large, hardened, symbol looking windows. Dawn was finally approaching. She looked back at Thel. He clenched his right fist, placed his arm across his chest and bowed his head down for the fallen Rtas Vadum; a warrior, a leader, a survivor of the war...a trusted friend of Thel Vadam. He honoured the fallen Sangheili veteran.

"Goodbye. Brother" he whispered.

"Thel?" Cyn called out to him, and hoping that she didn't disturb him. He placed his arm back into a normal position and turned to look at her. He wasn't smiling, but he wasn't angry either. He wanted to savour his revenge for when he and Magnaruckus meet again. Leaving Rtas to rest in peace, it was time the Arbiter reactivated the power of the ship, to bring the lights back up and get communications to the Phantom. He went on over to the console, taking him a good 20 seconds, and stopped in the middle of it, standing right next to the black dragoness.

She looked up at Thel, as the dragoness didn't even know how this stuff works. She could only make a fake smile, failing at trying to activate the power, let alone she didn't even know what to press. He smirked at her, letting Cyn know that so far, even if they're trip in the ship has not gone to plan, he still kept the kind smile on his face. That's the Thel she's known this whole time. At the single press of a holographic button, the power throughout most of the ship, reactivating the all the lights, the operational doors and some of the ship's gun batteries. Now he and Cyn can traverse through the ship with ease. They could now also communicate with the grunts using a better connection too, so Vadam decided to do that first.

"Yapflop, are you there grunt?" he spoke through the console.

"Arbiter, I told you, use my codename!" Yapflop demanded. Cynder shook her head in disappointment.

"Is this really the time?" she mumbled.

"(Sigh) Grunty guy 25 (what kind of a codename is that?), the power to the ship has come back online, have you picked up the survivors?" he asked the idiotic Unggoy.

"Yes, we're here Arbiter, what are we going to do now?" the red armoured captain elite spoke through Yapflop's transmitter.

"Fly the dropship down to the hanger, me and Cynder are going to move to the armouries and salvage any weapons we can get, we'll meet you at the hanger and I'll tell you the rest of the plan by then, Arbiter out" Thel stood back up, from lowering himself down to the console.

"Ok, we got it, do it Grunt!" the captain ordered Yapflop.

"Eh, whatever" it cut out after Yapflop's sentence.

"Let's get go Cyn, let them all rest in peace" Vadam turned away from the main console and made a move to the door.

"That's until you detonate that reactor Thel" she raised a brow at him. He didn't respond, instead, he gave her a not so happy look.

Somewhere in Thel's mind, he didn't want to destroy the Shadow of Intent. He's having a mental war with himself, deciding whether or not to detonate the reactor, and Cynder could only hope he chooses the right one.

**I found this chapter to be really dark. eh, my opinion anyway. review if you liked to, I'll soon get started on the next one. Have a nice day**


	30. Rtas's final place

Dawn was approaching quickly. The sun was just peaking from the mountains that were far from the Shadow's crash site. The captured dropship and its small crew (literally...small), as well as the survivors of the crash, were already inside the gargantuan ship, inside the hanger. Luckily, a crevice was under the ship, where the middle part of the ship was, otherwise if the crash was elsewhere, the entrance to the hanger would have been crushed. It was just hanging there, while the head and the back part of the Carrier were on each side of the crevice. The Phantom was hovering above the floor of the ship with the lift activated. Both side doors were already open, revealing that Yapflop was sitting on the left side. Spyro, Jabjab, Tesk, Shenko and the captain, whose real name is Ventor Odesa, were gathered around while the other 7 elites scavenge around the hanger for any parts while the group discuss what Thel ordered.

The hanger itself was a right disaster. Parts of vehicles were everywhere, ranging from destroyed Banshees, wrecked Wraiths and even a downed Scarab. Although it would have been a dire asset against the Jiralhanae Scarab walker, the legs were not in a good state. They were damaged, broken in a way. The wires were sticking out, sparks flying and the front forward left leg was torn from the socket. It was beyond repair.

"So let me get this straight, the fool wants us to scavenge, like savages, for any working vehicles that can be used to defend a city, which is controlled by the dragons and small furballs called 'moles' that the Brutes are soon to attack?" Shenko did was partially confused, but he kinda didn't like this idea. Ventor nodded.

"Exactly Ras'skar, as well as any weapons. He and the black one will be here soon and I expect at least someone to find a Ghost or a fuel rod gun or, at the very least, a rifle" the captain didn't care what the group found as long it would fight back. Tesk looked at Shenko, surprised to see that the higher ranked elite hates his superior.

"Why do you hate our Shipmaster so much?" questioning the Spec ops. Shenko grabbed Tesk by the left shoulder and pulled him closer by force, closer to his helmet.

"You didn't hear the little argument me and the Arbiter had, did you whelping?" Shenko had a really sinister voice. Tesk gulped in fear. A Spec ops elite is always a dangerous adversary and he didn't want to get on his bad side. Spyro knew this wasn't how elites should interact, especially since these two were on the ship together for quite some time now, near the end of the war to this moment. Why is Shenko so aggressive?

"Do you treat others of your kind like this?" Spyro attracted the Spec ops' attention, receiving a not-so-friendly snarl from Shenko. Pushing aside Tesk with force, almost causing him to fall on his backside, he angrily stomped over to the purple dragon across from him.

"Agh! big, scary elite, hide me!" Jabjab ran behind Spyro for cover. He tried to back up, but the green grunt was blocking him. Shenko stopped in front of Spyro, standing much taller than him. He crouched to get a better look at Spyro, like he did with Cynder.

"Huh, same species as that black one with a few differences. Slightly different primary colour, male gender, fewer horns, majorly different secondary colour...a bit more muscular than the other one" Shenko discriminated Spyro's figure, comparing him to Cynder, but he was far less interested in the purple dragon than the black dragoness for some odd reason.

"Peh, robot much? didn't get a good look at him on the dropship Shenko?" Ventor commented with arms crossed. The Spec ops looked back at his captain, standing back up.

"You know it's my job to take interest into new beings captain, surely you should know that, especially at your rank" he explained his reason, "but this one I'm not really into, I want to study more of the female, she's...special in a way" behind his mask, he was smiling deviously. Spyro got quite concerned about Shenko's last sentence, especially if it's about the one he cares for so much.

"You better not lay a finger on Cynder, I don't care if you're on our side, I still don't trust you" he warned Shenko, capturing his attention again. Mr 'behind the mask' growled on the inside, making sure no one heard him, but threatening at the same time.

"I don't expect you to purple one, but what I want, I get, and what I want is to have a little closer look at her, is that a little too much to ask" Shenko tone voice was pretending to be nice to Spyro, but all he got in return was a low growl. Instantly, Shenko might have one thought why Spyro was being so defensive for Cynder's safety.

"Oh, are you afraid that I might hurt your 'mate' are you? hehehe, life's full of surprises" Shenko mocked the purple dragon in a selfish way. This caused Spyro to change his attitude a bit.

"We're not mates, we're just...how about you just mind your damn business, its none of your concern" Spyro tried to hide his relationship with Cynder from Shenko, it might just sprout up trouble. The Spec ops warrior chuckled, already knowing that the two dragons were together.

"Don't pretend that you two are just friends, I know the motivations of any individual, even you" he stared at Spyro with his deathly looking mask. The dragon kept a firm, but wary facial expression towards Shenko, not afraid of the much taller and sinister elite.

"Alright, enough of that Ras'skar, I think you're just stirring him up now" Ventor demanded him to back off from Spyro, it might just get ugly. Shenko did the right thing and back up next to Tesk, who also took a backed a few feet away from Shenko.

After a moment of waiting, one of the blue minor ranked elites shoved off a piece of wreckage to uncover a fully operational Ghost hover attack craft, with both front forward plasma cannons still in working order. He hopped in it to see if it still worked. Activating the small engine core of the vehicle and grabbing the controls in front of him, he steered the Ghost towards the Phantom, grabbing the group's attention, and stopping just under the dropship.

"Hey, sire, at least we won't get yelled at by the Shipmaster now huh?" the elite happily grinned, jumping out of the banshee. Ventor couldn't agree more.

"Uh, why do you think boss would be angry if we didn't find anything Mr elite?" Jabjab asked Ventor, looking straight up at him with an innocent, but grunty nevertheless, facial expression.

"Uh, doesn't our former Shipmaster lose his temper when we fail at certain situations?" Odesa shrugged his shoulders, causing Shenko shake his head.

"(Tool)" he spoke in his mind.

"Uh, you must have the wrong elite captain, the Arbiter has never shouted except when we do really stupid things, even then we get small punishments, and we're grunts for Yapflop's sake" Jabjab cursed Yapflop's name in vain, wrapping his hands behind his back, waiting for his reaction.

"Hey, I heard that!" the yellow armoured grunt shouted, waving his right arm in the air.

"You hear a lot of things dude" Jabjab calmly replied back.

Ventor and some of the other unnamed elites then felt extremely foolish, thinking that their leader was a straight up strict Sangheili of their race. What utter stupidity.

"Ung, I'm in idiot. I think I'll just stay in the Phantom for the rest of the night" Ventor admitted.

"Yeah, maybe you should, senile old fool" Shenko insulted his captain, who was just walking under the dropship.

"(He's right...I am getting too old for this)" Ventor thought to himself, staring at his one and only hand, which was more wrinkled than either Thel's, Darst's, Tesk's or Shenko's hands, revealing his old age as a Sangheili warrior.

Spyro felt kinda sorry for Ventor. Despite his higher than average rank, he's still insulted by Shenko, who was supposed to taking orders from Ventor. Instead, He's forced down to be insulted by a mouthy Spec ops Sangheili. He only had one hand, he was getting old, but he was a veteran of many battles. Shenko should honour Ventor, but he didn't give one shred of it to the captain.

"Spyro dude, I uh, I really don't like that Spec ops. He doesn't care about the other elites, he despises you, he hates us grunts and he hates the Arbiter, no other elite hates the Arbiter, why does he?" Jabjab asked a question that Spyro will never figure out.

They both turned their attention to Shenko, who was just walking far away from them, on the other side of the Phantom. The purple dragon narrowed his eyes down, knowing there is something very suspicious about that Spec ops. Why does he hate everyone aboard this ship but takes an interest into Cynder?

"We need to keep an eye on him, something's not right about that elite" Spyro suggested.

Even though he planned to do just that, Shenko was able to sneak around the corner of a corridor, into a much darker place of the hanger. With no one to interrupt any further, he raised his right arm to look at his wrist bracer looking object. It had a screen on there and suddenly said "please speak into the microphone".

"I have conformation on both dragons in this ship. Your right, the Arbiter and his little rag tag lackeys were coming back to salvage anything from this wreck. They're probably going to get suspicious of me soon but no one has found out about our allegiance yet. Tell your leader to turn the ship towards this location. Hurry, Thel Vadam might do something drastic soon" Shenko spoke into his bracer. Who was he sending the message to?

In the neck of the ship, down a very long corridor that's just one entry and exit to the head and back part of the ship, Thel and Cynder continue their journey to the armouries near the hanger itself so they could finally meet up with the others. The corridor had the same design like any other but since it was like walking an entire kilometre, it had a difference. They were both halfway through it, stepping on one of the greatest weakness' of an Assault Carrier. Thel still had his mind concentrated on what he saw at the bridge. The place was horrific, a place where the Brutes could finally get rid of some vengeance, but filling the Arbiter with anger and even more hatred than ever before. He regrets leaving Rtas behind that day, thinking that he was dead, but merely knocked out. Vadam didn't want to think what Magnaruckus done to Rtas. Out of all the skinned bodies that were there, the limbs that were ripped, it would be stupid to think that the chieftain didn't torture him first. If he and Ruckus ever meet again face to face, he'll make him pay for the many deaths of the crew, for Rtas, for Shin.

"Thel? Thel! don't you dare block me out again!" Cynder warned him. She noticed Arbiter was zoning out again. He's done it a few times ever since leaving that bridge. She needed to keep him from going insane, or there will be dire consequences.

"Huh? huh? oh, sorry Cyn...I just can't get it out of my head" he admitted, trying to keep his head up.

"I don't blame you for thinking about it, but I don't want to see you go berserk with rage like those monsters. I don't want to see you running at me with those things you call swords" she told him, thinking that if Thel ever did go mad, he would kill everything in his path, even herself.

"I'd never hurt you, I told you that I'm sworn to protect you Cyn, remember?" he reminded of what he told her two days ago.

"Heh, yeah, but remember that I can still take care of myself, I don't need your help all the time" she turned to him, still marching onto the hanger.

"So, you didn't need help at those meadows?" he smirked.

"Well, I, uh, you see, umm...shut up" she didn't want to admit to that but there was nothing she could say to counter this, without bending her pride a bit, and this made Thel chuckle.

"Ha ha ha, got you there haven't I?" he patted the top of her forehead, on the markings.

"Don't make me hurt you Arbiter" she threatened him, waving her scythe tail tip around. He pulled his left arm back to avoid getting a nice cut. What suddenly confused him is that she was giggling.

"Gotcha, I wouldn't do that Arby" she was only messing around with the Sangheili.

"Why don't I believe you?" he replied.

"Why do you think I'll hurt you?" she raised a brow.

"Why are you annoying me?" he asked.

"I'm not annoying you, I'm asking a question" she smiled.

"You are"

"I'm not"

"You are"

"I'm not"

"You are" suddenly, she jumped onto his back and got her front paws to cover his eyes, blocking his line of sight.

She steered him right into a wall and smacked his head into it. She jumped off at the right moment, landing perfectly and watching Thel topple over as a reaction from the wall. Both his helmet and the wall were hard as solid metal, so his head felt the impact. Now he had a small headache.

"Argh! see? you hurt me!" he looked at her whilst taking off his helmet to inspect the damage, sitting against the same wall he rammed into.

"It wasn't me, it was the wall that hurt you, I only jumped onto your back" she grinned, laying on his right leg.

"But you steered me into it" he blamed her.

"Aww, how the mighty hath fallen to a helpless dragoness" she mocked him.

"Helpless? you gave Magnaruckus a bloody back and face, you destroyed half a Brute encampment and correct me if I'm wrong, but you helped Spyro take out that Dark master that you told me about. Heck, you both took down a giant Golem, stopping an entire army from taking the city! Helpless? I think not!" he reminded Cynder about the events that involved her attacking and fighting enemies with absolute devastation (especially the encampment destruction and the Malefor fight).

"Ah yes...and it's not like you haven't done your fair share of battles, you took down a very dangerous Brute Chieftain, killed a zealous Prophet and, with a little company with a so called Spartan, stopped the parasitic organisms you call Flood. You even killed some Grublins in the forest, and you really showed no mercy to them, good riddance" she smiled

"Mmm. Still, you're not helpless, don't lie about that" he told her, whilst trying to get up.

"But I was injured at some of those battles, especially when I was helping Spyro defeat Malefor, does that prove it?" she followed him down the corridor once more, looking up to him with a grin.

"No, you survived them still. I wonder how Spyro puts up with you?" the Arbiter looked down to her.

"Excuse me?" she immediately tuned her attitude.

"Got a nerve" he smirked.

"Dare you to say that again, I might up give a little more pain than a simple bang to the head" she warned him.

"Well does he?" he asked again. Suddenly, she breathed shadow fire under his feet, causing him jump move away from that small area.

"Agh, ow! ow! geez!" the side of his feet was mildly burnt. Shadow fire is more dangerous than regular fire, able to scar you for the rest of your life. Luckily, since they were both friends, the shadows she produced were less dangerous. Still...

"Ung! you weren't kidding!" he admitted. Touching Cynder's can get someone hurt.

"Say that again" she dared him once more but Thel wasn't that stupid.

"Uh, let's talk later" he suggested and kept on walking. She shook her head and smiled, enjoying what she just did.

"Don't worry Thel, those burns will dissipate soon" she stuck by his side, keeping an eye on the burns.

"(Huh, good luck trying to raise kids Spyro, she's a feisty one)" Thel thought to himself in his head.

Far away from the crash site, the menacing Brute Battlecruiser still barrages its way to city, ready to attack, ready to annihilate everything in its path. Onboard, near the medical quarters, Jikartus marches to where Magnaruckus is. He was rushing to get to his master, with a fuel rod gun on his back. Entering the quarters, right in front of him stood the much taller and much stronger chieftain. He gulped as soon as he spotted the injuries Cynder gave to Magnaruckus.

"Uh, master? you feeling better?" Jikartus asked with a light voice.

"She...will pay for the pain that Cynder caused me. These wounds will never heal because of her and that wretched purple freak flyer. GRRRAAAAAAGGGHHH!" Magnaruckus held his fists in the air with fury. His right was completely white, with a scar going across it diagonally, exactly how Cyn attacked him. His wrists were healed, but a few ribs and his back weren't. So many scars she gave him, gives him reason to hate her even more.

**I like to thank Airman 0007, 555814, Invaderjrek, Grimlock, Spyrolink, Planeswalker11 and many others for these reviews and as well as everyone who has taken their time to read this, it wouldn't have been possible for me to continue this story without someone who would wait patiently for the next chapter, thanks guys, thats all, Annihilator 78 out. Have a nice day :D**


	31. Helpless dragoness, I think not

Magnaruckus has now been scarred for life. His eye will never heal again, as well as the scars on his back. His wrists will, but he cared more about his face. The one going diagonally down his eye with a complete white eye has made him even more menacing and uglier. This angered him beyond comprehension, one of the most pissed off Brute Chieftains ever known, even more angry than a Brute berserker would ever be, but he kept his fury from going out of control, thus risking accidently destroying the only medical bay on the Cruiser. Jikartus, the average sized war Chieftain and second in command of the Jiralhanae forces, kept some distance from Magnaruckus, seeing the anger in his eyes as he looked in the mirror on the wall to see the damage Cynder had done to him. They're the only two Brutes in the med room, with others standing outside listening to every word.

"Jikartus, that black freak flyer is definitely on top of my 'to kill' list. I'd never thought I would see the day where I declared a species just as annoying as the Sangheili, but here it is. I want that species gone, not just the Sangheili, but those freak flyers as well" Magnaruckus officially declared, sparking a question for Jikartus to ask.

"But master, we're mostly aiming at the Sangheili, we can't afford to have our forces attack another species, we can't spread that thin, remember that most of our fleet has now been decimated. Only this Battlecruiser and a few Corvettes are all that is left, and the Corvettes are stationed at our homeworld. If we didn't have the Carrier tag along, we could replicated that and we would be at Sangheilios by now, crushing those pitiful elites!" Jikartus clenched his fists. His voice wasn't as deep and croaky like Magnaruckus', but it was just below that line.

"But no. I will admit this, I'm foolish for bringing that Carrier along to fight the Shadow, but unfortunately, it was destroyed, as well as the reactor core that was needed to duplicate its technology to make more Carriers. Which is why we need the one the elites have in their Carrier, if it's still intact. How is our inside job doing?" the giant Chieftain spun around, staring at Jikartus. The war chieftain was about to choke. Having Magnaruckus stare at him just freaked him out, especially with that eye injury.

"Well, Ahem! Since you now mention it, we just gotten a report back from him. Those miscreants and the Arbiter has made it to the Shadow. They're salvaging whatever is left of the ship before leaving with some Sangheili survivors. The black freak flyer went with Thel Vadam, the other stayed with those runts. Maybe the Arbiter and his little pet have found the bridge, remember when we turned off the power?" Jikartus politely asked his superior with respect. Mag crossed his arms, relatively pleased to hear this news.

"Is that so? what about some of our pack that we left at the Shadow? Have they been discovered yet?" he desired to know.

"Uh, no word from them yet, but there is still a possibility that they're still scanning the main reactor. We'd better hope they get the data of mass production for Assault Carriers soon, otherwise, the elites find out, chances are that they may kill them and destroy it, ruining our chances to even step foot on their homeworld" Jikartus gave out the small details. A small, low growl grew up inside Magnaruckus, disappointed there is nothing from a group of Brutes that are still at the ship.

"Well they better hurry, Drektus better not fail me, or we lose any of annihilating the Sangheili from existence. But I do wonder if Thel and Cynder have found the bridge. (Chuckles evilly), Vadam is probably already having nightmares from Rtas' corpse. I wished I looked at that data pad before we left though" Ruckus regretted, but it didn't bother him. Lucky though, if he did find out what Rtas said, it could have sped up the Brutes capability to get the data to replicate and mass produce Carriers, but he never did.

"Well anyway, our spy told us to divert the Cruiser away from its current course so we can retrieve our team. Do you think we could make it with this speed?" Jikartus kept on asking the Chieftain, needing to know what has to be done.

"Hmm, I don't know, a few Phantoms would do the job much faster. But then again, those runts took one of our Phantoms and the purple freak flyer decimated the other two, who knows if he could do it again. That purple one is just as interesting as the black one I must say...Eh why not, divert the Cruiser from its current course. Keep the ground army on its current course. I would now like to see how our new 'ally' is coming along" Magnaruckus shunted Jikartus out of his way, opening the highly advanced doors and revealing at least 10 to 15 Brutes in front of him.

"Ung, get out of my way damn it!" the enormous Chieftain pushed away most of them of them to get through, even having to crush one against the wall before he finally got through the small crowd. It wasn't really necessary, but corridors can get easily cramped. This left Jikartus to shrug his shoulders and get on with the pack masters demands

Magnaruckus' heavy footsteps approached another door close to the med room, but it had a caution sign up in Jiralhanae language, which was barely readable for Humans, but the words somewhat resembled what the Human's Greek civilisation had, only more...symbolic looking. Ignoring the words, Ruckus entered the room to find it almost completely dark. It looked almost completely empty, with the exception of a surgery table in the centre of the mid-sized room. Unlike the surgery table at the med room, there was many small repair machines around, active and operating on a creature. Needles, knives, small mechanical hands and other repair types to create something devious.

On the table though, it wasn't a dead Brute, or an injured one for that matter. On that table revealed a Sangheili corpse, bloodied all over the table. Next to the corpse was a lot of spikes that must've been impaled in the elite, in the chest, stomach, legs, arms, even the neck. The blue armour was incredibly recognizable, but there were some machine parts that covered some breached areas where the spikes hit, indicated with little yellow lights. The elite...that Sangheili warrior. It was...was it? could it actually be the dead body of Shin Tarscar?

"Well my new servant. If the first elite proves useless, you will be able to demonstrate your own abilities to the Sangheili resistance once more...and your good pal, the Arbiter..." Magnaruckus had the most devilish look in his eyes. Shin's corpse was being reconstructed...for what purpose? will the Jiralhanae even bring Shin back to life? how?

As Magnaruckus observes the reconstruction of Shin's body, the Battlecruiser starts to list lazily to the left, going in the direction where the wreckage of the Shadow of Intent is. The ground forces were ordered to stay on the same course, the Cruiser might be back soon. At the wreckage of the Intent, inside one of the main armouries nearest to the hanger, Thel and Cynder were trying to collect any salvageable weapons that can be used against the Jiralhanae. In order to carry them all, Vadam would be carrying a large, metallic purple case with a handle. It was opened up to put the weapons inside.

From the looks and size of it, no weapon larger than a Fuel rod, Plasma launcher, Focus rifle or Bream rifle was to be put in there. It would be able to hold 10 weapons of any kind, as well as 5 energy swords and 10 small pieces of plasma technology the size of a Hercules beetle. The armoury itself was quite large, but it was a god awful mess since the ship crashed and now, weapons, equipment and other Sangheili tech is all over the place. Where Thel placed the large case, it was the only clear spot of the room, so they both could find it again. Both he and Cynder tread carefully to make sure they don't step on anything sharp, let alone accidently fire a weapon. Anything would be useful right now.

"Egh, Nothing better be shot off" Cynder hoped as her front right paw stepped on a broken plasma rifle.

"I was just thinking the same thing" Thel agreed, just a few feet away from her.

He lowered his height down to search through the tech mess, throwing away anything that's utterly useless. When he threw a damaged plasma pistol away, he accidently threw it at Cynder, which struck her in the right cheek, almost hitting her eye.

"Ow! what the heck was that for?" she yelled at him from across the room. He turned and saw the little bruise on her face. It wasn't life threatening but it really hurt.

"Oh, sorry...but count it as payback for making me whack into the wall" he suggested to her. She rolled her eyes but since she didn't reply, they were even...for now.

When she turned to continue the search, Cynder pushed away all the useless junk away to find what Thel would call it useful. On her side, most of the weapons were in pieces, damaged or just out of battery supply. It was fair to say that her search wasn't going well. Suddenly, when the dragoness flipped a inoperative Beam rifle with the front part of her nose, two purple metallic cases sat in front of her. They were just as large as the case they were filling with weapons and other equipment but there was indeed something already inside them. She turned to looked at Thel, seeing that he's already gathered 2 plasma rifles, a beam rifle and a plasma repeater, she smirked because whatever was inside these two cases could help the resistance even more.

"Finally, whatever's in there better be worth it...to Thel and the other elites anyway" she shrugged her shoulders, knowing whatever is in these cases was worth more to the Sangheili, but it would also be needed for the defence.

Seeing that there was almost no other option for her to carry it, let alone lift it, she grabbed the case on left by its handle with her jaws, putting some effort into dragging it over to the Arbiter. Fully exposing those sharp white teeth, the case was quite heavy, especially for the young dragoness, and was straining some of her strength. As she dragged it, the case was making a path through the destroyed equipment. Finally, after at least a minute of pulling, she caught Thel as he was putting 4 plasma grenades and 3 pieces of plasma tech in their case of weapons. Arby actually watched Cynder drag the damn case all the way. She turned to see him standing in front of her with a goofy smirk on his face, apparently enjoying the sight of Cynder dragging a big piece of metal over.

"Hey, why didn't you help?" she complained, a little annoyed that he didn't aid her.

"It didn't look like you needed help, besides, I thought you were strong to handle things yourself" he reminded her about one of their little conversations during their travelling through the ship. She rolled her eyes, sighing deeply.

"Alright, whatever then. Well you have the honours of opening this thing, what are you waiting for?" she took a step back to let Thel open the case, after all, it's Sangheili tech and Thel is obviously the Sangheili to open the case.

Shrugging his shoulders and still having that smirk on his face, he crouched down as low as he could to open the case without having any discomfort, being as low as Cynder's height. She wasn't short, but then again, she was only a bit taller than a human midget (no insult applies to that).

Thel flipped two small locks the size of a fly to gain full access to whatever is inside. It could be opened like any Human briefcase. He lifted the top right and inside that case was turret looking weapon. It looked exactly like a plasma cannon that's used on the ground and on the side doors of Phantoms, but something about it was...different.

"Thel, isn't that the weapon Jabjab used on the Phantom? you know, before we escaped that meadow?" Cynder had seen the design before and Thel knew what she was talking about.

"Yeah, a plasma cannon. But with a minor difference" The Arbiter decided to pull out a piece of equipment out. A small yet fragile piece of tech.

"This is part of a targeting for this turret. What you've found my dear Cynder is an automated plasma cannon!" Thel exclaimed, knowing this is a very good find. She stared at him, wondering what that meant.

"Ahem, explanation?" she raised a brow.

"An automated targeting system gives a turret doesn't need a gunner, like that plasma cannon Jabjab used. It will lock onto any Brute and kill them with precision accuracy...and a barrage of death" Thel was awed that Cynder could find one of these. Automated plasma cannons were hardly used in the war and now, they can be finally put to the test against the Jiralhanae. The cannon itself wasn't in a purplish colour as well. It was more of a metallic black skin for it instead of its usual covenant purple.

"Oh, so it could be useful then?" she looked to him.

"Could be? it can be used to strategic effect. Those beasts won't what hit them" Arby placed the small piece of tech back into the case, closing it moving it next to the other one full of weapons in it.

"You know, there's another one over there" Cyn tilted her head where the other case is.

"Cynder, you may have the best finds out of both of us" Thel is so pleased that the dragoness found these things. She a little smile on herself, but in her mind, she knew that they were found by accident.

Thel ran on over to the other side of the room to look a what's inside this case, thinking it's another turret, kneeling on his leg again and flipping the locks, he opened it with joy, hoping for another turret. Instead, it was an armed bomb. His happy smile, suddenly turned into cold shock.

"Oh shuktara kin vastora" Thel cursed in Sangheili language.

A sudden explosion happened right in front of him, sending him flying into a wall. The size, force and magnitude of the explosion was quite small, but still enough a Sangheili flying into the wall. Cynder's jaw dropped as soon as she saw and covered her head with her wings as a defence to any plasma or debris from it. As she protected herself, the dragoness could hear the sudden thump from Thel's impact on the wall. When it was over, she uncovered herself to see the black scarring on the floor. Most of the weapons that was lying around was away from the blast area, either against the wall or all over the injured Sangheili Arbiter.

"What the? Arbiter!" she noticed the damage Thel received. His armour was damaged in some areas including the chest, stomach and leg areas. His helmet was almost intact, but there was black scarring all over it. Under his neck, where the armour didn't cover, a bit of blood of gashing around there, dripping all over his body and onto the floor.

"(Cough, cough) It...wasn't...another...turret" Thel was badly hurt, his blood was gashing down in the more exposed parts of his armour, too weak to move. Cynder rushed over to the bloodied Sangheili.

"Thel! what in the world was that?" she was very curious how a simple purple case would into a deadly explosion of death. He was very lucky to survive such a blast.

"It...was a bomb, damn Brutes must've known that we'd go to the armouries to salvage weapons, (cough, cough) devious fiends!" he tried to move, but his body was in no shape to do anything.

"Thel, I'm so sorry, I should've checked it first" she regretted letting Thel go to the case, laying her head on his chest, thinking that he could die now.

"Cyn...if you had a look inside it instead of me...the bomb would've went off anyway. The only reason I lived is because of this armour, and since you're not wearing this, you could've been in pieces right now. In short, I kinda saved your life...again" he was right. Cyn wouldn't have survived the explosion, risking his life to protect hers. She lifted her head in surprise, looking straight at him.

"This may not be the best time to say this but...you seem to have a knack for defending me" she smirked, "are you going to make it?" she was now concerned for his health, his armour may have saved most of his self, but it didn't absorb all the damage. He tried to get up again, but he's still too weak.

"Ung! I'll live, but I really need a bandaid...or 20!" there was a bit dark purple blood just passing the front of his left eye. Cynder noticed it and licked the blood off clean, avoiding his eye. He put a little smile on his face from that.

"That's the least I can give you" she smiled and had a little blush on her at that moment.

"That always seems to make me feel weird for some odd reason. Argh! this really isn't the time, you need to get help from the hanger" Thel exclaimed, clenching onto the left side of his stomach, feeling a sharp pain just under the ribs.

"Wh-wha? you want me to go alone? to the hanger?" she backed up.

"It isn't that far, just take left down the cor-" Arbiter was suddenly cut off by her.

"Why can't you use that transceiver thing?" she asked. Thel looked at his wrist to see the transceiver was unharmed by the explosion. He felt kinda foolish not thinking about that.

"Oh...yeah I could" the elite raised his wrist to speak into it. This was to Cynder's relief, she didn't want to go by herself anyway.

"Yapflop, Yapflop, you there?" Thel called the orange grunt.

"Arbiter! how you doin dude!" Yapflop was laying was in his dropship, comfortably sitting back in the pilot's seat while everyone else do their tasks.

"This is no time for fun and games Yapflop, I'm severely injured in the main armoury not far from the hanger, a bomb went off in my damn face! get some help now!" Thel shouted. It's strange that no one else heard the bang it made.

"Hmm...that explain the noise...ok Arbiter, I can do that" Yapflop jumped out from the seat and ran to the right side door.

"HEY! THE ARBITER SAID THAT AN EXPLOSION WENT OFF IN THE MAIN ARMOURY NOT FAR FROM HERE AND NOW HE'S HURT, HOW ABOUT YOU GUYS GET OFF YOUR LAZY ASSES AND HELP HIM HUH?" His shouting was heard all over the hanger. Tesk and Ventor, who were just about to pull out a Locust power core, turned to look at the dropship, hearing what the idiot said.

"The Shipmaster is injured?" Tesk exclaimed.

"Get Shenko, we have to get to him" Ventor ordered the minor and started t make a run for one of the larger doors that leads to the main armoury.

"Ung, I hate that guy" Tesk moaned but he did as he was told and went to find Shenko. Spyro and Jabjab looked at each other, knowing that this news in only troubling stuff.

"Yapflop, did he say anything about Cynder?" Spyro asked the orange grunt, supposed captain of the Phantom.

"One second! Hey Thel, what about the black chick? how she doin?" Yapflop asked with inappropriately. Cynder felt insulted by that, letting a low growl escape her mouth, which wasn't the only that came out.

"I'm fine thank you. When we see each other again, expect a claw to the neck runt!" she back chatted Yapflop.

"Oh. Goodie" Yapflop's attitude suddenly dropped like an anvil falling from the sky.

"Snap" Thel smirked. Cynder smirked back, but was she kidding?

"C'mon dragon, you can't trust on Yapflop's words, we follow those elites, we find the Arbiter and you girlfriend, simple as that. Let's go" Jabjab started following Ventor to the large door. Spyro didn't bother with what Jabjab just said and tagged behind the grunt.

Shenko was laying next to a wall with arms crossed, standing there like he was Sangheili gangster. Tesk stopped right in front of him, annoyed that he now had company.

"What do you want whelpling?" Shenko's sinister voice asked the young Tesk.

"The captain wanted me to find you so we could help the Shipmaster" he explained. An awkward moment of silence passed them, until Shenko broke it.

"Why? what's the point? and stop calling that fool a Shipmaster, THE SHIP IS DONE FOR!" the Spec ops yelled at Raskar.

"But we...oh forget it, you're not even a good ally" Tesk just couldn't wait any longer, he left Shenko as he was before he found him. When he was out of speaking distance, Shenko muttered.

"Who said I was your ally whelpling?" he shrugged his shoulders, watching Tesk catch up to Ventor, Spyro and Jabjab.

Meanwhile, in another part of the galaxy on an unknown planet, A back piece of a UNSC Frigate was laying on a desert, smoking from its impact to the ground. It was surrounded by Battlecruisers and dropships alike. The place was very sunny, but very, very hot. There was almost nothing for miles except the ships. Inside what's left of the frigate, Sangheili of different ranks and armour search it for anything useful.

"Commander! over here! we found something!" A Sangheili ultra, in clear white armour, called out to a yellow armoured elite. He stepped over small debris from the crash, passing many damaged cryotubes to see what the ultra and its comrades have found.

"What is it Shyu?" the commander asked, staring at an intact cryotube.

"Something's in this casket. Someone is in there!" Shyu touched it with both his hands. It felt completely cold.

"Hmm. Open it then" the commander ordered the ultra.

"I don't think that's a good ide-" he was abruptly interrupted.

"OPEN THE CASKET! NOW!" he shouted at Shyu, pointing at him with his patience wearing thin.

"Yes commander" he finally did as he was told and grabbed the lid of the casket, as there was no power to automatically open it.

With a huge ounce of strength, he roared as the lid finally open for the 7 elites. Right in front of them, was the being that was thought to extinguished from the living. It started moving, awakening from its slumber.

"Do...do I know this one?" the commander could faintly remember who this being was. In a large green suit, starting to climb out of the tube, was the one and only being of its kind. He stood tall, his size just rivalling most elites in this room

"Commander, I know this one. Most of our race talked about his kind when we were fighting the humans...welcome back from the dead demon...a lot may be on your mind now, but we need to talk" the ultra crossed his arms, knowing who this was.

"Oh this ought to be good" an AI appeared right behind the Sangheili.

**Shocking revelation isn't it? I'm writing the next chapter down as of right now, so it shouldn't be too long, hopefully anyways. A 78 out.**


	32. Spirits live on

"Wh-where am I? wh-what is this place?" a lone Sangheili asked himself. He was in a somewhat supernatural form. His voice sounded like exactly like Shin's.

He was in some sort of chamber, with shelves of books almost on every side, but it was in a spiral way, unlike what the Warfang Library had before it burnt down. There were tons more than what Library had. It just seemed so...creepy and dark, yet it didn't feel evil.

"What is this place?" the ghost form of a Sangheili asked himself. Suddenly, he looked at his hands and make them go through each other. He could even move them throughout his body.

"WHAT AM I? WHAT'S GOING ON HERE?" he didn't know what the heck was going on. He was a ghost in a creepy chamber filled with books on the side and pool right in front of him.

"You died Shin. The Brutes killed you and now they've taken hostage of your body and turning into something...not organic" a large, light blue dragon figure came up behind the ghost of Shin Tarscar. He was indeed incredibly taller than him, but just as the same size as the guardians. He had a couple of large, but ancient shoulder armour as well. He was no doubt a very wise dragon, filled with almost unlimited knowledge.

"Who...who are you? what is this place?" Shin asked, terrified of all these new revelations. He had the urge to run away, but he needed answers and he was going to get them.

"Be at ease Sangheili, I'm not a threat towards you. I am only known as the Chronicler, but before that, you may remember a name that was told to you when you first met out kind" the large dragon was explaining everything to Tarscar. He had to lower his head to talk much more clearly to Shin.

"What is it?" Shin's nerves were starting to calm down, even though he didn't have any.

"Do you remember either Spyro, Cynder or the other guardians mentioning the name Ignitus?" he asked the Sangheili ghost.

"I...I think I remember the big green one telling us all...wait, your Ignitus?" Shin's ghostly eyes widened.

"The one and only my Sangheili friend" Ignitus smiled.

"Bu-but they told me you were dead, killed when you, Spyro and Cynder went through this wall of flames anomaly. Unless...we are actually dead and...oh by Truth's rotting corpse" Shin cursed the Prophet of Truth's name in vain. Who wouldn't after what the crazy fanatic tried to do.

"I'm afraid that's not the case Shin. I'm not actually dead, but you are. It's a complicated story, but there will ve time for that later. Come, take a look at this" Ignitus invited the ghost of Shin to the pool of water. He was hesitant at first, but he slowly trusted the dragon, so he followed close behind.

They both stopped right in front of it. It looked very clear like any lake of water, but it seemed to mysterious to be a normal pool.

"What in the galaxy is this?" Shin asked, unaware of what this pool can do.

"This is a pool a visions, a much better one than what's at the temple. It allows me to see what's happening around this place. When your ship crashed, it allowed me to examine what your species is, where you came from...what kind of history you have had in these recent years" Ignitus stared at the pool. Shin was still a little confused, but some of this was all starting to make sense. But if he said that he knows of the Sangheili history in the past years that means he knows about the Human-Covenant war.

"So...you know about the Great Schism, the Flood, The Rings...and the Ark" Shin asked the wise dragon.

"Yes, and I'm more than grateful that you, the Elites and the Humans were able to stop this 'Covenant' from using those weapons of terrifying power. The whole galaxy should be grateful, they owe you that much. But that isn't the reason why you were brought here, why your soul was resurrected. You deserve a second chance. Look closer at the pool" Ignitus told him.

Shin shrugged his shoulders and lowered his head to look at it. After a few moments, he could faintly see something in it. He dropped his mandibles in awe as he could see the crash site of the Shadow of Intent, high above where it sat. He thought he'd never see the Carrier again, but he was dead wrong. It was just a shame that it wasn't in its former glory.

"The Shadow...(sighs) she was a beautiful ship. I wished I condemned the Jiralhanae to the depths of hell. Wait, can you find Thel with this thing? or Cynder? or anyone for that matter! Please!" Shin was desperate to see the others, hoping that they escaped the meadow.

"Calm your mind Shin, if you want to see them, picture the person in your mind, and the pool will show you" the wise dragon looked at him.

"But I don't even have a brain...all right, I'll try" Shin had no other choice. He needed to see if they were. He closed his eyes and the first thing that came in his mind was the Arbiter. He wanted to see how his friend was doing.

"Cleanse all the other memories away for just a few moments, so you are left with just the person you are looking for" and Shin did just that. Wiping away everything, the Brutes, the war...his death. Soon, he could only Thel Vadam. He could only hear his voice.

It worked. Shin's imaging of Thel caused the pool to react. Many ripples arisen to reveal what he was looking for. Shin knew that place, it was the main armoury at the Shadow. He could see both Thel and Cynder, laying next to each other against the wall. When Tarscar opened his eyes, he noticed Arby was badly injured.

"Thel! what happened to him?" Shin demanded to know.

"He opened a metal case that he thought to be some kind of weapon. Instead, it was a bomb that the Brutes planted. They knew elites were coming to salvage whatever they could and Arbiter paid for it. He's just lucky that the armour protected him, or he'd be joining you right now" the Chronicler explained to Shin

Tarscar looked back at the pool. A minute afterwards, Ignitus and Shin could see more a red armoured elite coming into the room with a green armoured grunt and a purple dragon, followed by a blue armoured elite coming into view. The two elites went to help up Thel while Cynder gets up to see Spyro. He wrapped his wings around her to cuddle with the young dragoness, since he was worried that Cyn would get lost in the ship, but Thel proved useful as a tour guide. The sight of the young dragons brought a smile Igintus.

"Ah, what I'd do to be young again. Take great of her Spyro, her love for you is stronger than ever. She will need you more than ever for tomorrow" Ignitus was fully aware about the battle against the Brutes, and he hoped that both the young dragons will fight just as hard as they did with Malefor, maybe even harder than that.

Jabjab went to see what was inside the two metal cases. A ton of weapons and the automated plasma cannon. Shin has never see those elites before and begun to be confused again. There were more elites?

"Who...who are they? I thought only me, Darst and Thel survived the crash" .

"There were more than just you three Shin. These are two of the many survivors of the crash. But I'm afraid the last time I saw Thel and Cynder, they stumbled upon the many bodies of your kind. I don't want to go into details about it. It was...unbearable" Ignitus remembered looking into the pool to see how Cynder was doing. He saw Thel and the mutilated bodies of the crew. A shudder came upon the wise dragon. Shin probably didn't want to know either, so he looked back at the pool.

"Will I be able to see what the Brutes are up to?" he asked, now knowing that Thel, Cynder, Spyro and the grunts are going to be ok, but he wanted to know what the savages are planning.

"(Exhales) since the pool of visions considers the Brutes as a threat towards us, it will only show faint images of their doings and their locations. It's the exact same image type that happened when Spyro looked through it to find Cynder, when she was captured by Gaul and the apes. Since she was with evil, only dark, evil images will come up. If you want to know what they're up too, think of images that relate to the Brutes, or try and remember their leader" Ignitus told Shin very carefully. Tarscar could easily what the Brute Chieftain looked like. Magnarukus then came to him.

Suddenly, faint images of orange and black kept coming up in front of Shin. One showed the Battlecruiser; the Prophet's vengeance. It was closing in on the Carrier. It's still quite far from where it was, but it will get there nevertheless. Then, some dark orange and black images showed the interior of the Cruiser. The still images shown Brutes going around all. One image then shown Magnaruckus with bright, evil eyes, indicating the pool knows he's the one that has to be stopped. The next was an image of a Sangheili Spec ops. It looked like Shenko. If he was in these kind of images, it proves he's not on the resistance's side, but that wasn't what caught Shin's eyes. Suddenly, another image came and it shown Magnaruckus and Jikartus standing over a table with a Sangheili body on it, with machines repairing it. The ghost of Shin started trembling violently. He noticed who that Sangheili was. It was him

"Argh! those monsters! they're repairing my body so they could use it against Thel and the others! Don them to the depths of hell!" he cursed, furious that the Jiralhanae would actually do this kind of thing. Ignitus could clearly see the anger in him, but this is where he was about to give the good news.

"Shin, I know this is shocking to you, even to me, but I can help you get back into your body once the repairs they're doing are finished" Igy gave Shin a bit of hope. He lifted his head up from the pool to look at the huge dragon, face to face.

"How? how? please tell me!" Tarscar begged on his knees.

"I can send you back anytime after the reconstruction are done. Whether the Brutes use your body or not, you can regain control of it once more, but it's best not to do it while the Brutes are around. They will begin to be suspicious, and your worst case scenario is they kill you and you will you will stay in the afterlife for eternity. It's best to wait for the right moment Shin...you're going to be here for a while" Ignitus gave him the unfortunate news, but Shin took this nice and easy. At least he knew he was going to get his body back, with a few changes the Jiralhanae will make.

"Ok. I just hope Arbiter and the others get back to Warfang safely, before...(exhales) before the worst comes to pass" Shin's ghostly form couldn't do anything but sit against the pool and hope for the best. And plan for the worst.

"This must all be traumatizing for you my friend. Would you like me to keep you company and tell you about this place while we wait for the right moment to send you back?" Ignitus asked in the politest of ways. Since there wasn't anything else for Shin to do, he might as well sit back and hear some knowledge that most dragons, or elites, will never know.

"I'd like that" Tarscar smiled.

"Ngr! I really hate bombs!" Thel moaned in constant pain as Ventor supported his limping back to the dropship.

Tesk, Cynder, Spyro and Jabjab were behind the two Sangheili elites, following them back to the hanger, the three elites at the front, the young dragons in the middle and Jabjab being the one to stay at the back and he hated being the less important one, but he made no argument. Even though Tesk was an elite, he only knows parts of this ship but on at the head. The back part would just be daunting for him to go alone, so he let his captain and Thel be at the front. He was carrying the case with the automated turret in, whilst Jabjab, although a grunt, dragged the case full of weapons along, making a searing metal against metal noise that completely annoyed them all. Cynder just hoped Jabjab won't set off anything while he dragged it, because she saw Thel put plasma grenades and two fuel rods in there.

"Your injuries look serious Vadam, but at least you're still breathing" Ventor could easily see the state Arby was in, the dripping blood, the damaged armour, all of it has significantly hurt Thel. He's never had injuries like this since his time as a Covenant warrior, even before he became the Arbiter.

"It could've been worse, I would be dead, or Cynder probably opened that thing instead of me and she would be dead. Besides, neither the both of us saw it coming. Although Jiralhanae are savages, they're crafty at what they do" Thel complimented on the Brutes handicraft, smirking, even though he was hurt. Spyro raised a brow and looked Cynder, who was walking by his side. She didn't say anything, just putting a 3 second gaze on the purple dragon then looking in front of her again.

"You give them credit sire?" Tesk was surprised by Thel's comment about the Jiralhanae.

"I know they're vile and foolish in almost every way boy, but Brutes are certainly not mindless grunts, like some I know" Thel looked back at Jabjab.

"Hey, I have feelings you know" Jabjab felt insulted, waving a clenched fist at the Arbiter whilst dragging the case.

"As I was saying, the Jiralhanae are to be taken seriously. As vicious and mindless as they are, They know what they do, and sometimes, dirty, rotten tactics can come into their mind, and Magnaruckus and some of his Brutes are no exception to it".

"At least you were able to gather more weapons and an automated plasma cannon turret. That could prove useful" Ventor had seen what content the cases held, pleased to know at least the salvaging has begun to be success. Arbiter then had something else come into his head.

"Speaking of salvage, anything useful you found at the Hanger?" he asked the captain. Ventor smiled, remembering what his elites found.

"We've been quite successful ourselves, we found two operational Ghosts and an fully functional Spectre assault craft. We also a Locust power core and some wires that you ordered, all in a good state" Ventor's tone of voice sounded quite please of these finds. It's was hard for him to believe they were still working, the crash was pretty violent. He thought nothing would've worked.

"That's...that's excellent news! 3 vehicles and the core, finally Shin's Locust can be finished" Thel wanted to jump for joy, but his state denied him that.

"Shin? who's this Shin?" Ventor looked at Thel. He never knew who the brave warrior was. Thel's expression suddenly dropped to a depressive kind of one. He still couldn't get over his death and Cyn saw it. She worried for him. Nevertheless, Vadam answered Odesa's question.

"He was one of the Shadow's navigators before the crash. After it, he became something I never thought a navigator would be. A fully fledged warrior. At a meadow, when me, Shin, Spyro and the two Grunts went to find and bring Cynder back to the City of Warfang. When we did, it turns out the Brutes discovered her. We fought them, Spyro was able to get Magnaruckus away from Cyn, the Grunts, Shin and I distracted the force Mag brought. In the end, we stole the dropship. Unfortunately, before he could get on it, The Brutes shot him...they annihilated him with those spike weapons..." Thel's head drooped down, remembering what happened. He started resisting the tears.

"He won't die for nothing Thel. We'll all make sure he didn't die in vain, by giving the Brutes a taste of their own medicine" Spyro assured the Arbiter, wanting payback as much as he did. Thel smirked, happy to hear this.

"Ha ha ha! I like this dragon, he understands the nature of our fight against the Jiralhanae, I look forward to your combat skill against them, when the time comes that is" Ventor loved Spyro's attitude towards the Brutes, earning his respect.

"You've made a friend" Cynder nudged him in the shoulder with her right wing, with a smirk. He replied back with a smile. He never thought he would get a comment like that from one of the other surviving elites, let alone, an experienced one.

"Captain, what about Shenko? he disobeyed your order" Tesk reminded Ventor about the Spec ops' refusal to help he and the captain.

"I'll have a 'polite' chat Shenko. He's about to find out what happen when you refuse an order, especially by me. Damn fool think twice before doing it again!" Ventor grinded the teeth on his mandibles together.

They eventually came upon the main large door they used to get to the main armoury. When it opened, it revealed the Phantom still hovering there as it did before, except two Ghosts were in its tractor lifts, with the Spectre in front of them. Tractor lifts were always used to carry vehicles across the battlefield via dropship. It was a shortcut for most ground vehicles, including Wraiths. The Locust power core and its wires must've been stored inside the dropship itself. Ventor's elites were gathered around, chatting to each other. They must be done salvaging the hanger. There was a slight problem. Shenko was not around.

"Huh? where has that Spec ops gone?" Ventor didn't seem pleased he wasn't around, "Brethren! where has Ras'skar Shenko walked off to?" the captain shouted out to his elite squad. They all shrugged their shoulders. None have seen where he went.

"I don't kno-...oh you were talking to those guys. Whatever!" Yapflop thought Ventor was talking to him as well, but he always gets left out, so he just went back to the pilot's seat.

"Damn it! (sigh) He'll probably return later. Right now, we need to get you on the dropship for medical aid, come on" Ventor limped Thel over to the dropship with the others following close behind them.

The other elites watched them go by, seeing them enter the dropship through its gravity lift. Spyro and Cynder simply just took off into the left side doors, being the first to enter the Phantom. They saw Ventor, Thel, Tesk and Jabjab come up through the lift. The veteran captain sat Thel against the back of the dropship while he went to the cockpit to grab medical aid. Tesk sat just next to the entrance of it, sighing in relief. Jabjab moaned and dropped on the floor. He was worn out from dragging those weapons. The two cases sat next to each other, just at the closed left side doors. The young dragons stood and watched Thel, but this gave him a chance to tell them something.

"Spyro, Cynder...there is something that has to be done now. Listen carefully" Thel told them. They looked at each other, Spyro was kinda confused because from the look on Cynder's face, she knew what was coming.

"What is it Thel?" Spyro asked him, needing to know what it was.

"I've come to the decision to detonate the plasma reactor that isn't far from here" Thel's tone of voice sounded quite depressed from what he said, the sadness in his eyes. The decision to destroy what's left of the Shadow ached his two hearts. Ventor and Tesk suddenly turned their attention, with huge shock.

"WHAT? DETONATE THE PLASMA REACTOR? THEL VADAM, THAT WILL CAUSE A CHAIN REACTION THROUGHOUT THE OTHER REACTORS ABOARD OUR SHIP! THE RESULTS WILL BE CATASTROPHIC!" Ventor warned Thel of this, but Rtas told him this with the data pad.

"I know of the consequences Ventor! I know most of you won't agree with me on this but our race is at stake. Since we destroyed their last remaining Assault Carrier, they haven't been able to replicate the technology. But, if they get the data from our reactors and other data bases that contain the vital information to make Assault Carriers, they will build many of them!" Thel explained to all of them. Even the grunts turned their attention to this. They were all listening to his words.

"What are you saying Arbiter?" Tesk was beyond shock now

"I'm saying that If they get that information, they build Assault Carriers, they fill them with crews...they destroy our entire civilisation on Sangheilios. They might even go beyond that. It will be the Human-Covenant war all over again! Glassing each planet until submission! Only, it's the Jiralhanae-Sangheili war...the worst case scenario? They activate one of the rings" his voice sounded dark on those last words. Even though the Ark was eradicated, the Halo rings are still a threat to the galaxy.

"And all life will cease to exist..." Cynder remembered what Thel told her about the Halo array, knowing what potential devastation each ring can produce.

"Exactly. It doesn't matter if Truth is dead, those Brutes will still try and activate one of those things! I'm afraid that this ship must be destroyed before the Brutes get what they need. It pains me for that desire, but it has to be done" Thel lowered his, closing his eyes and already feeling the shame that will be put upon him when the ship blows up. Ventor sighed, having no objection to this, but feeling the pain.

"Then...we have no choice. We have all the salvage we got now. Someone needs to go to the plasma reactor room. It isn't far from here. 5 of us needs to go" Ventor decided the plan.

"Me and Jabjab would like to do this, I'm sick of sitting on my ass watching you guys mumble on, time we got some epic action!" Yapflop jumped out of the cockpit and got Jabjab up, grabbing his left claw and pulling him up. Ventor looked at Thel and shrugged his shoulders. It seemed risky, but one of the elites should be enough to assist them.

"All right then grunts, go see a minor ranked warrior named Kintra Skultoro. He can aid you two to the plasma reactor, but who else will join them?" Ventor looked around the cargo hold, looking at Tesk and Thel. Cynder then got her voice to attract their attention.

"Me and Spyro can go if you'd like us to. It's best if the other elites got comfy in the dropship while we all detonate the reactor. Besides, we need everyone onboard for the escape won't we? We will have to move fast if we want to escape the blast radius" Cynder volunteered herself and Spyro for this task. Ventor looked at Thel for permission and he happily nodded.

"All right then, you can go with the grunts. Kintra will help detonate it the reactor. Once that's done, make a run back to the hanger so we can all leave this place in one piece ok?" Ventor stared at them.

"Got it boss" Jabjab saluted.

"Yes sir!" Yapflop tried to stand taller, holding his breath.

"You can count on us" Cynder smirked.

"Wait, what about that Spec ops, Shenko, what about him?" Spyro reminded everyone about that suspicious Sangheili. Thel huffed in hate.

"If he doesn't get back here before we leave, he can die with the ship for all I care, he's too damn unstable with his attitude towards some of us" Thel didn't care about Shenko at all. It's quite rare for the Arbiter to hate anyone else besides his enemies, but Shenko takes the cake.

"All right then, hurry up you 4, find Kintra in that squad then get to your mission. I'm sure you won't need any weapons for this, besides, Kintra has a plasma repeater for protection" Ventor ordered them in kind, but firm tone of voice.

"Ok, we go!" Yapflop and Jabjab jumped though the lift whilst Spyro and Cynder took off out of the dropship's open side door, but Cynder didn't take off before she winked her left eye at Thel. He did the same.

"Get well Vadam. You look a little under the weather" she smiled and took after Spyro. Thel widened his eyes and looked at his injuries, which were still in a bad state.

"Ahem, one hand is enough to get rid of this Ventor" Vadam stared Odesa, waiting for that med aid.

"Oh sorry" he apologised and got to work. Tesk looked out of the side doors, taking his last look of the Shadow.

On the hanger floor, the Grunts waddled out under the dropship and watched the dragons land next to each to them. Side by side, the two pairs of different species looked at the group of Sangheili. Jabjab was the one to break the quiet.

"Hey! elites! which one you is Kintra Skultoro?" he called out to them, which were just a few feet in front. They all turned to small creatures, but one elite with solid blue armour came out of the squad.

"I am, what do you need?" Kintra politely asked. His voice sounded quite the noble type. He stood as tall as any average elite. The closest difference he is to other elites was that his armour was not only solid blue, it had a bit of purple attached to it. Cynder was going to tell the whole mission to Kintra instead of Jabjab. He might mess something up.

"Kintra, we need you to lead to the plasma reactor room so we can detonate it. It's vital that this ship is to be destroyed, or the Brutes will get invaluable information. The rest of you elites, get aboard the Phantom, we need everyone ready for the escape" Cynder ordered the other elites. They did what she told them and went to the grav lift except Kintra. This news came a bit of a shock to him. He knew what would happen if it was detonated but nevertheless, he nodded without argument.

"All right then. Follow me and stay close. I doubt you know where it is anyway" Kintra got the 4 of them to follow.

Cynder breathed in heavily. She knew this was going to be close when they all escape this ship, but this has to be done, whether any of the Sangheili liked this or not. Spyro knew she was getting nervous, but they had each other going through the ship now, and they weren't alone. But their group wasn't the only one who was going to be at the plasma reactor room.

"They're coming. The 2 dragons, the 2 Grunts and one of my brethren. Are you sure these two lackeys of yours some of your best Drektus?" Shenko was at the plasma reactor, talking to an average Brute war Chieftain, whose weapon was a plasma cannon.

"Don't worry my former Sangheili enemy, they will kill them all, I promise, come with me, we can talk business" Drektus insisted they both go to another room nearby, while they got 2 Brute stalkers to guard the console of the reactor.

**The Shadow will soon see its full demise...or will it? Thanks Grimlock for that Ignitus and Shin idea, ties in perfectly with Magnaruckus reconstructing Tarscar perfectly. 45 reviews! awesome (whisper: I wonder if I can get to 50?). Anyways, have a nice day, A 78 out.**


	33. Stalkers of doom

Going down a large corridor with medium sized pillars in the centre of the walkway, Kintra, Jabjab, Yapflop, Cynder and Spyro moved as a whole group to get to the plasma reactor. From there, they can detonate it and cause the chain reaction Thel spoke of. Most of them knew the consequences, but it has to be done or the Brutes will get what they'll need.

"Stay close to me you 4. You'll get lost if you wander off. I meant you grunts specifically" Kintra smirked. As with all elites, high ranked or low ranked, they always take charge and lead the group. The Grunts were right behind with Spyro and Cynder just behind them.

"Eh, shut up dude, we haven't seen inside this place so of course we'll get lost...I hate walking" Jabjab lazily dragged his arms along with him, can't even be bothered walking like a normal grunt...even then it ain't normal.

"Well then you shouldn't have come ya idiot!" Yapflop hit Jabjab in the back of the head, causing him to yell.

"Ow!" he rubbed the back of his head.

"Now you know how I feel Jabjab. Getting hit in the back of the head for "incompetence". Doesn't feel good does it?" Yapflop stared at the green grunt, finger quoting the word incompetence. Jabjab turned to his only grunt friend.

"I...I've been doing it to you this whole time?" his expression suddenly seemed surprised. And saddened.

"Yes! ever since we left the Brutes! have you ever freakin noticed?" Yapflop seemed quite angry at Jabjab. To both the young dragons, this was a pointless and amusing argument.

"I-I'm sorry Yapflop..." Jabjab lowered his head, saddened that he has been hitting Yapflop like this forever now.

"(Sigh) Let's just get to that reactor thingy" the yellow grunt shook his head.

None of them spoke for a good minute. The silence overshadowed this place. The Carrier was turning into a ghost ship. Spyro then had something on his mind that really started concerning him. He remembered smelling Cynder from far away when he, Thel, the grunts and Shin were looking for her and he could easily find where she was by smelling the pheromones of her being in heat. As of right now, it was clenching onto his mind and he had to tell her.

It surprised him to see that Cyn doesn't notice it, that her body is slowing taking its course. What was stopping him was that he wanted to tell her in private, but with Kintra and the Unggoy right in front of them...it was just deemed too personnel. Cynder noticed Spyro looking a little weird, maybe it's something on his mind.

"Spyro, are you ok?" she tried to get his attention. He looked at her, knowing that she already got his attention with those pheromones. Slowly, they were getting to him and soon, he wouldn't be able to resist her. He wanted to wait until both he and Cyn were at the right age to mate, but the pheromones weren't helping. There was one way he could tell her without the others hearing.

"Cyn, slow down, let them stay ahead of us for a bit, I need to talk to you...without them hearing us" he moved at a slower pace, falling a couple of feet away behind. She raised a brow, confused why he was doing this.

Taking a look at how far the others were, She slowed down to level with where he was. They were now out of hearing distance, but she kept an eye on Kintra so they'd wouldn't get lost.

"What's going on? why do we have to be this far from them? We'll probably lose them doing this" she whispered. She sounded a little bit annoyed that they were this far from the others, but this has to be done now.

"There's something you need to know...ever since you left the city, I've been getting some strange smells. I ignored them before we started looking for you but when we got to the forests...they got stronger and more...intoxicating...and a little addictive" Spyro felt a little embarrassed to tell her.

"Spyro, just tell me, you're making no sense. Where was the smell coming from?" she had no clue what he was talking about. She noticed that he was a little shaky around all his legs. The blood was running through Spyro to the base of his tail. That wasn't a good sign.

"Cyn...it was you. I think you're in heat. I would able to smell you for miles on end and I would still be able to...(sniffs deeply) ohhhhh...maybe you shouldn't get so close to me" Spyro moved away from Cynder, so he wouldn't have much of an urge and the blood started receding back into its normal habits. Her expression suddenly changed from the annoyed one to a more shocked beyond words one. She knew what that meant but she didn't know that it would happen this early in her lifetime. Cyn would have to keep an eye on him from now on.

"Ho-how did this even happen in the first place! I'm not even old enough to be in heat!" she tried to keep her voice as low as possible, or the others would hear, "Really bad timing for something like this to happen. How long do you think I've had it for?" Cyn sounded really concerned about it. She wants it gone now.

"Well, I first smelt it when you left. I don't know when it started" Spyro thought, lowering his head, un. Her jaw lowered, knowing how it might've happened.

"It started that night, in the forest...just after we saved Arbiter" she said in her mind.

When they begun to have really affectionate feeling for each other, it caused her body to trigger and react, giving off the pheromones. They were weak at first but they grew stronger as time went on, and now it's causing Spyro to have the urge to mate with her. Either that or adult hood is slowly creeping onto her. This wasn't the time or the place for the matter though, right now, it has to be ignored, but one question needed to be answered for her.

"Does, does anyone else know about this? the guardians? Thel?" she asked Spyro. Her heart pumped rapidly, extremely embarrassed about this turn of events.

"Thel knows. I told him about it when we looking for you. No one else knows, just him, you and me" Spyro answered quicker than usual. He was more intent on trying to get some 'unwanted' thoughts out of him.

The purple dragon hoped this would end very soon. As much as he wanted to mate with her and have a family, they were both still quite young. He even knew that's not want Cynder wanted yet. This was very awkward for both dragons.

"That's ok I guess. Enough of this, if we try to ignore it, nothing will happen ok? c'mon, let's catch up with the others" Cynder suggested and ran up behind the grunts. Spyro knew this would only get worse here on out.

"What if she starts having these urges? What if she tries to...no, no she wouldn't. I better hope it doesn't go to her head though" Spyro said to himself in his head. He thought that if both her hormones and urges get to her, she would try to seduce him into mating, there was no way he could resist her then, she'd be way too tempting. He'd have to find out more about the dragoness' part of reproduction and biology and be more careful around Cyn as well.

He just hoped for an end of it. Taking her suggestion and tried as hard as he could to block it out, he ran up next to Cynder behind the grunts. He was glad they were there because the sight of Jabjab and Yapflop put him off of Cynder. They were just that ugly.

No one talked the rest of the way. Kintra wanted to keep this quiet. If the bomb that Thel was hurt by was planted by the Brutes, what are the odds of them still being in the ship.

Instead of taking the usual left and right corridors, they stumbled upon a large grav lift that takes individuals to higher and lower levels of the ship, exactly like the ones that were in High Charity, before it turned into a Flood hive.

The grunts knew exactly how this thing worked, despite their stupidity, but Spyro and Cynder were about as clueless as an ape, not knowing what it even is.

"Good, it still works, the bridge's power must've done the job. Ok, I'll set this thing to take us down 6 levels. That leads directly to plasma reactor. We'll detonate it, then before we run out of time, run fast as hell back to the dropship, you wouldn't want to be here when it explodes" Kintra warned them. Though he really didn't want to see the Shadow go up in a huge explosion, He knew at least it'll go out with a bang...a really big bang.

"Wait, we don't know how this stuff works though!" Cynder stepped between the two grunts, looking straight up Kintra. Spyro watched her go in front of him, between the grunts and started to watch Cyn's tail sway left and right.

Something in his head told him to grab her by there, an urge, but he shook his quickly and tried to ignore her very attractive physique, which is harmless torture for him

"It's simple black one. Just step on through and the lift will take you to our destination" Kintra easily explained the gravity lift's methods.

"Uh, how big is the plasma reactor room though?" Jabjab raised his left claw hand, "I've only seen Battlecruiser and Corvette ones and they're somewhat small".

"Compared to Corvette one, much larger. Compared to Battlecruiser though, I'd say at least 5 times bigger. There is quite a small columns and large pillars around and the room is an entire circle. That's mostly what we'd be expecting in there" Kintra explained even further small knowledge about the reactor, "In the centre is the reactor. To detonate it, we need to overheat it with any weapon we've got. That'll cause the chain reaction we need to blow the Shadow sky high".

The grunts looked at each other with raised brows. Spyro and Cynder didn't like that idea much. Sure it's one way to blow it, but how much time would they have to get back to the dropship.

"Um, how long would we have before this whole place is nothing but dust and echoes?" this time, Spyro questioned Kintra. He scratched his helmet. He never thought about that bit.

"I don't know actually. I think when the chain reaction finally reaches the main core. I'd say that's at least an estimate of 10 minutes" Kintra only guessed this, but remembering how big the Shadow is and its many reactors and cores, that's the best one he has.

"That's it? 10 minutes?" Cyn exclaimed with eyes widened. She didn't know that's all they had.

"Look, I'm just guessing. We may have more or we may have less, but no matter how long we've got, we sprint for the hanger. Now come on, I'm done having a good look at the ship before its final moments, we have to blow this thing as soon as possible" Kintra swiftly turned around to face the lift, which was moving downwards.

He was the first to jump in it and to both the dragons' surprise, the lift sent him down instantly, out of their sight. They waited a few moments for the unexpected.

"Well...I haven't heard any screaming yet so maybe he got down there" Cyn turned to Spyro. He stood just a foot next to her. He was still trying to resist those temptations and urges but he kept a straight face.

What really caught his attention all of a sudden was the grunts, who were happily jumping into the lift.

"HAHAHA! WHEEEEEEEE!" Yapflop screamed.

"GERONIMO!" Jabjab yelled.

The lift instantly sent them flying down, like water in a drain. Cyn and Spyro looked at each other, shocked that something like this lift can get you to different places. The dragoness looked back at the lift. She shrugged her shoulders and pushed Spyro aside with her left wing.

"Move over rover, because here goes nothing!" Cyn instantly shut her eyes as she went through the lift. She went down exactly like Kintra and the grunts, out of Spyro's sight. He dropped his jaw in awe, he knew she was curious to learn new things, but this was just craziness.

"Ah, it's unbelievable that we got ourselves into this mess!" Spyro jumped in and went down very fast. Light green lines streamed passed the grunts and the dragons.

They moved quite quickly through this tube like machine. They could see outside the tube. There were many other rooms, ranging from a few smaller reactors to a vehicle depot, with most of the vehicles wrecked, and even the main reactor core of the ship. It was enormous.

There wasn't a floor that anyone would be able to stand on. It was basically two giant pyramid shaped structures holding a huge dark purple energy anomaly in the centre. It looked like it was shooting lighting out of it and pulsing radically at the same time. It was already unstable, maybe got it during the crash.

The grunts were spinning out of control, they couldn't do anything but enjoy the rest of the ride. Cyn and Spyro were diving through the lift gracefully next to each other, like they were actually enjoying themselves. Cynder absolutely loved this machine, she took everything back everything bad she said about the lift in her mind.

This wasn't a simple going down the elevator for her, this was more like a theme park ride, a fast one. Spyro smiled at her, glad to know that she was enjoying, much more than he was, but he liked it nevertheless.

Finally, the lift flew Kintra out and he landed perfectly on his feet. He stepped aside to the left and watched Jabjab and Yapflop be spat out of it, screaming through the air. They hit two separate dark bluish columns hard, Yapflop smacking his face against it and slowly slipping to the floor and Jabjab hit the other with his back towards it and face planted on the floor.

Skultoro watched Cynder come out of the lift with no harm done to her, landing on almost exactly like Kintra. Spyro though, was spat out of it and collided with the black dragoness. The position they ended up on the floor was with Spyro being on top Cyn, looking at each other. Cynder remembered that she was in heat so she pushed Spyro right off of her with all 4 legs, sending him on his back.

"Ouch!" the landing on his back was not pleasant. The floor definitely didn't feel like a pillow.

"Those, (exhales deeply) moments have got to stop...although, it did feel good having him on top of me...Agh! what the hell am I thinking?" she stood right back up, trying to regain her thoughts from being in the lift for the first time.

"So, what do you think dragons?" Kintra asked the both of them with a ginned expression on his face.

"That was exhilarating! I've never experienced anything like that!" Cynder answered quickly, turning to the elite.

"It was...fun, I guess" Spyro rubbed his neck, feeling a bit stiff there.

"That sucked!" Yapflop commented disgustingly.

"It hurt" Jabjab rubbed his face. It was safe to say Cyn enjoyed the most out of all of them

"Alright enough fun. It's time we end the Shadow's misery for good. Stay here, This repeater should do the trick. Overheating the plasma reactor will cause it to detonate and explode. That's when we run, clear?" Kintra stared at the small group.

With 4 nods, they let Kintra do his job. They were ready to make a break for it anyway.

Relinquishing out the plasma repeater, he walked towards the reactor in front of him. There was simple pathway leading directly towards with columns and pillars. The pillars were able to reach to the high ceiling. The plasma reactor itself was blue and pulsing erratically, like the main core. He halfway away from and he kept an eye out for the unexpected.

He looked left and right, between the hundreds of columns. If anyone got lost in them, it would be like walking through of forest of small metal structures. The place was very quiet and very, very eerie.

Suddenly, just a few feet away from the reactor, Kintra could hear footsteps, heavy footsteps. He twitched his eyes everywhere he looked, staring through the gaps of the columns. Someone else was here and it was hunting Kintra.

"Show yourself coward, I demand to know who else is here!" Kintra called out to the unwanted intruder.

"Your demise Sangheili" an unknown croaky deep voice spoke behind Skultoro.

His eyes widened in fear. He turned and saw a Jiralhanae Stalker right in front of him with a Brute shot in his arms. The daggered teeth stared right at him. The helmet covered its eyes, instead having a central laser looking eye. In a swift and deadly move, the Stalker used the blade on the grenade launchers bottom to impale Kintra in chest, lifting him into the air.

The sound of the blade could be heard going through and coming out the back. Kintra's faint scream could be heard but is soon silenced as he slowly died. His blood slowly poured out from the deep wound as well from his mouth, onto the blade and the rest of the weapon.

When his blood reached the Brute's fur, he roared in great victory, vanquishing one of his Chieftain's foes seems to be a great honour.

"KINTRA!" Cynder just watched their only Sangheili ally on this mission die before her eyes. The Brutes were here.

"OH CRAP, THEY KILLED LEADER! RUN AWAY!" Yapflop turned to run at the lift, but Spyro grabbed the grunt by his neck and threw him behind a column just next to the pathway that Kintra took.

"We can't leave now! we have to destroy that reactor!" Spyro ran next to where he threw Yapflop, who was just getting up.

"It came for that information! They'll wipe out Thel and the rest of the Sangheili off the face of the galaxy! We have to kill them him now!" Cynder shouted and ran with Jabjab behind a column on the other side of the pathway.

"Come out you freak flyers! The chieftain has invited you to Breakfast! AND YOU'RE THE MAIN COURSE!" the Stalker pulled Kintra's body out of the blade and threw his body into the reactor, disintegrating it. The second Stalker appeared behind his brother, holding a more advanced spiker with blue lighting on, instead of the usual orange.

"Hey, I could've eaten that you idiot!" the other stalker complained.

**Sorry for the unintentional cliffhanger, but I've been working on this chapter quite a bit. Don't worry, battle scene coming up next chapter. Stay awesome! Next chapter coming soon **


	34. Battling the Beasts

On the dropship in the hanger, everyone and everything was prepped and ready to go. Multiple weapons, 3 fully operational vehicles, surviving Sangheili, a Locust power core and small pieces of technology that can be used to make more energy swords, energy daggers and build and upgrade weapons. All this is needed for the defence of Warfang.

The surviving elites, including Tesk, sat in the cargo hold quietly, awaiting for Cynder, Kintra, Spyro and the two grunts. They also expected a very violent rumble when they detonated the plasma reactor. Some of Thel's injuries were almost healed. His cuts and exposed areas of his armour have stopped bleeding, thanks to Ventor's handiwork using a med kit, with one hand.

He had a couple of black bandages around most of the length of his arms but he could still move them at least. The bandages were covered by his armour, which most had to be took off in order to put them on, like the last time with his displaced arm bones a couple of nights ago.

"I'll live. Besides I've been through worse than this" Vadam grinned, looking up at the veteran captain.

"What do you mean? Brutes? Flood? Humans?" he asked.

"Well, let's just say one ours back at the city decided to go on a little anger rampage, burning a building, almost killing Cynder and displacing a bone in my arm, not to mention a couple of 'scratches' he gave me" Thel air quoted scratches. He could still remember that long gash on his body that he received from an angry Darst Kino.

"Ha ha ha ha, I see, how's he now?" Ventor just couldn't help it.

"He's alright now, he's as good as ever. He helped us upgrade some weapons, take those weapons for examples" Thel pointed out Plasma launcher, Focus rifle and the Fuel rod gun, all in their upgraded glory.

"Hmm, what rank is he? weapon scientist? engineer?" Ventor turned back to Thel.

"Believe it or not, a crimson armoured Zealot, one of few that survived Reach before we changed the armour to solid yellow" Arby explained. It was hard for Ventor to believe a Zealot class warrior from the battle of Reach upgraded these weapons. Normally, a tech specialist or an engineer did those kind of jobs for specific combatants.

"Huh, I thought they were all dead, killed during the Great Schism" Ventor placed the rest of the bandages in the small medical kit. He placed it back near the dropship pilot seat then returning his attention back to Thel. With most of his wounds bandaged, he rested against the wall and let his body do the rest.

"(Sighs deeply) I wonder how they're doin with the reactor" he started to rest his eyes, closing them.

"I am in radio contact with the elite that went with them, just give me a second" Ventor raised his right wrist, having the same kind of radio device Thel had when he was with Cyn.

"Kintra Skultoro, this is Captain Ventor, are you receiving me?" Odesa spoke into it. There wasn't any answer, only a little bit of static. Vadam suddenly looked up and started to slowly worry, concerned that something has gone wrong.

"Damn, the Shadow's reactors are probably interrupting the connection, I'll strengthen it and if there is still no response...then something has gone terribly wrong" Ventor pressed a few holo panels to do just that.

"C'mon...reply" Thel murmured.

"Kintra? can you hear me?" Ventor tried again with increased connection strength.

"Come out you freak flyers! the chieftain has invited you to Breakfast! AND YOU'RE THE MAIN COURSE! (static)" the Brute Stalker's voice was heard. The static continued just after the beast's sentence. Ventor eyes widened in horror. Thel instantly knew Cynder and Spyro were in grave danger.

He looked at his injuries. They were still healing but he felt a bit better than when he was being taken to the Phantom. He looked to his left and spotted a plasma rifle. He was too weak to take any heavier weapon than that. Ventor looked at the Arbiter and suddenly knew what his doing was.

"No Arbiter! your wounds are not yet healed! you'll kill yourself trying to save them!" he watched Thel get up quickly.

"There are bloody Jiralhanae on this damn Carrier! they have to be extinguished now or they'll have information about these ships! I won't let that happen!" Thel was furious. They were still on the Carrier. His anger flowed through him like slip space jump.

"That's not the truth Arbiter! you just want to save those brainless , foolish, winged creatures! It's a lost cause, the-" Right there, Thel punched Ventor on the left side of his face, taking him down as if he was a falling tree trunk. The red armoured elite was almost done in, about to take a dirt nap.

"Say that again Ventor, and I'll cut your other hand off and give it to one of our Hunters!" Thel pointed at him, "Cynder and Spyro are not foolish! and god forbid they are brainless captain! Dead or not, I'm going there! and nothing will stop me" Thel jumped off the Phantom, leaving shocked and breathless elites staring at their humiliated captain.

"Ouch..." Tesk commented.

Thel ran as fast as he could, with wrapped black bandages on his wounds, he will not slow down until he has found the dragons and grunts and destroy anyone stupid enough to get in his way.

"Keep firing! don't let them escape!" the Stalker fired repeated rounds of blue spikes to suppress the grunts and the young dragons. The Stalker with the Brute shot was destroying the columns nearest to the small and almost unarmed group to annihilate their surrounding cover.

They were still behind the two structures that are across each other against the pathway that leads directly to the plasma reactor, Avoiding the incoming shots, but the Brute shot will soon destroy every bit of cover near them if something is not done now.

"Yapflop! didn't you bring any sort of weapon?" Jabjab shouted from across his way. Yapflop then pulled out a small plasma pistol and was immediately disappointed.

"Um...oops, wrong weapon I guess?" the orange armoured grunt shrugged his shoulders. Jabjab facepalmed, knowing that they are really doomed now.

"We have no choice, we gotta get up close and personal with them!" this was Cynder's only option to Spyro. A Brute shot grenade just hit Spyro and Yapflop's column, taking a bit of the front out.

"Agh! but didn't you see how that fiend killed Kintra? they use that same ability Thel can use! they can turn invisible!" Spyro exclaimed, narrowly avoiding three spikes that passed by.

Cyn looked around slowly and watched the Stalkers fire at will. They couldn't see her make this risky move, but the spiker Stalker then had an idea.

"Shaktus! I'll flank them, you keep their attention!" he tapped on his brother's shoulder, giving his plan.

"Make it quick Vartus, I want these 4 on a platter when you're done!" the Brute shot Stalker looked back at comrade, then resumed his grenade shooting.

Vartus suddenly turned invisible right in front of Cynder's eyes. She knows this could only cause trouble.

"One of them just disappeared!" she called out to the purple dragon. 2 grenades whooshed passed her face, pulling her neck and head back. Her teeth held together with total shock. She was very close to having her turn into a mushy mess.

"Alright, without that other one to back him up, this is our only chance to attack!" Spyro saw the opening. Now is the time for the two dragons to strike.

"Wait till he reloads! Mr ugly has to put more grenades in that thing soon!" Jabjab told the dragons.

Grenades flew past them and destroyed the tree columns in front of their cover. The whole place was starting to turn into an explosion fest for this Stalker. He was having the time of his life, firing grenades without hesitation, nor mercy. His Jiralhanae laughter filled the reactor's room but finally, to the group's relief, the Brute shot started clicking.

"Huh? Grr, by the Prophet! I need more grenades!" the Stalker opened the small hatch where the ammo is inserted for the weapon.

"Now!" Cyn ran around the corner and charged at Stalker, with Spyro just catching what she said and ran just behind her.

They both charged as as hard as they could to get to that Stalker before he started firing again. Just as he put in the grenades and closed the hatch, he looked up to see Cynder coming at full speed. He grinned as he swung the Brute shot to its back bayonet and raised it high above ready to impale the dragoness with it. Spyro suddenly tried to stop his charging, knowing the Brute was going to kill his dragoness now.

"CYNDER, STOP! HE'S GOT A SHARP OBEJCT ATTACHED TO THAT THING!" he shouted desperately, warning her of the fatal threat.

"Wrong move Ape face!" Cynder growled as her feet lifted off the ground and her wind ability trailed her speed.

She was gaining even more of a stronger charge. The Stalker's jaw dropped as well as Spyro's. They couldn't believe the speed she was going at, but grinding his teeth, the Stalker went for the stab in her back, bringing down the bayonet, but he was too slow. Cynder rammed straight into his chest with her forehead, her extremely hard forehead. Cracking can be heard as the Stalkers ribs were breaking.

His jaw was dropped a second time, but this time it was in pain some of his blood gushed out of his mouth. He could hardly breathe with the dragoness ramming into him like that. Both he and Cyn slid across the ground, with the dragoness hanging onto his chest with her claws. When they finally came to a stop, she looked up at the Stalker face. He badly injured, unable to get up. Cynder crawled up to in front of his face started clawing at him, each strike came with a moan of attacking, she was desperate to kill this Stalker. Her teeth fearsomely showed as each strike crossed his face again and again.

The Stalker's face was bloodied, unable to resist Cynder's brutal assault. He struggled to get up, as each hit just caused him to weaken. A few of his teeth were taken out as she struck him. This was a dragoness's way of slapping someone in the face. When she took off his helmet with another one of her hits, the Brute's evil eyes stared at her, exposing what's left of his sharp teeth, in which his gums bled. He grabbed her middle left ivory horn and smacked in the face with his right fist, letting a small screech of pain out. He sent her flying on the floor. Landing on her stomach with the wings drooped on the cold ground, the strength of the Stalker caused her nostrils to slowly let loose blood, with a bit more coming from her mouth.

Shaking it off, Cynder blinked multiple times to see better and looked up. The Stalker reclaimed his Brute shot he was ready to cut her head clean off with the bayonet. He menacingly stomped over to her, once again raising his weapon. She stared death in the face, but at a moment's notice, she watched two ice balls hit the Stalker's huge feet, stopping him in his tracks. He couldn't move at all.

"AGH! WHAT IS THIS? WHERE DID THE ICE COME FROM?" the Stalker exclaimed, feeling the intense cold on his legs.

Spyro was the one who relinquished the ice. Cyn watched him take off as he swung his tail around , in a spiral, to hit the Brute under his jaw, breaking the ice and making start to fall backwards. The Stalker dropped his weapon, feeling the brunt of that hit. Spyro flew behind Shaktus and grabbed onto him with all 4 of his legs, holding on with his claws. He climbed to his back and bit on the very top of his head, causing him to scream in agony. His blood slipped out of his head and dripped onto his and face and even into Spyro's jaws.

"ARGH! NO! I WAS SUPPOSED TO EAT YOU! GET OFF OF ME FREAK FLYER!" Shaktus couldn't take it anymore. His vision started to get blurry. He was slowly dying.

"Don't judge our race by how some of us are small compared to you, JUDGE BY HOW POWERFUL WE ARE!" Spyro let go of the Stalker's head, jumped off, hovered behind him and opened his mouth right up to unleash a fury of fire on the Stalker's entire body.

The powerful blaze consumed the Stalker's entire body. Truly agonizing screams from Shaktus were heard all over the room. He burnt brightly, revealing a small victory for both of the dragons over a savage warrior. Cynder witnessed the deathly movements of the Stalker, going backwards and forwards 2 times then finally coming to a standstill. The Jiralhanae warrior toppled down like a giant. The sudden thump could be felt for Cyn. Shaktus, a strong Stalker class warrior has fallen to the two dragons.

Spyro sighed in relief, glad that the Brute is finally dead. He landed next to Cynder, facing the dragoness who was still lying down from her hit. She still had blood coming out both of her nostrils, as well as a little bit coming out of her mouth, but she completely ignored it as Spyro gently nuzzled her neck, grateful that she was fine.

"Hey! they killed the big guy with that Brute shot thing! we might have a chance to win this now!" Yapflop excitedly yelled as he ran out of the column.

Jabjab was also about to celebrate but he then saw the air look a little bit hazy. He wondered why it was happening, the plasma reactor never causes hazes, but then a small little glowing light appeared just a foot above the floor. It was quite pretty but when it was thrown at Yapflop, it set him ablaze.

"AGH! OH GOD! AH! IT BURNS! IT BURNS!" Yapflop ran around crazy, the fire burned his skin, his armour. He was slowly burning to death.

"Yapflop! No! Monster!" Jabjab watched Yapflop fall to the ground. He was unsure that was dead, but he turned to the haze and the watched Vartus decloak his camouflage.

"You little runts! Once I've dealt with you, the freak flyers are next!" Vartus used an incendiary grenade on poor little Yapflop, who was helpless against the fiery death bomb. Jabjab was about to cry and recklessly run at the Stalker, but he looked at Yapflop's left thigh and spotted his plasma pistol. Looking back at the Stalker, who raised his blue lit spiker at him, ran to Jabjab's probable remains and retrieved the small, docile pistol.

He then ran away from the blue spikes that followed him. The Jiralhanae didn't know a grunt could run that fast because all his shots started missing Jabjab. The grunt finally got behind his damaged column cover and charged up the plasma pistol. Vartus continuously fired sapphire blue spikes at the column. His weapon had an unlimited number of sharp objects in it, unknown how it has a mechanism like that.

"Come out Grunt, this is what you face, you little friend is going to die, accept the fact that you will all...huh?" Vartus spotted a green glow around the columns. Jabjab whipped around the corner.

"THIS IS FOR YAPFLOP AND SHIN YOU BIG, UGLY BRUTE!" Jabjab relinquished the EMP shot at the Stalker.

When it hit, the armour started to lose all electronics and the small dot lights on it, including the laser seeker on his helmet, ran out of power and the Stalker armour completely fell off, revealing the Brute's furred body.

"Oh...that just took all his clothes off..." Jabjab looked at his pistol, surprised it did something like that.

"Grr! How's that going to help you runt?" Vartus put the two sharp blades up to Jabjab's grunty neck. It was clear that he doomed, but he was ready to die, knowing that he just made a Stalker lose all his clothes.

"Hey!" a female voice called out to Vartus. He looked behind him to Cynder flying at him.

With the blood still slowly oozing out of her, she swung her tail around at the Jiralhanae, as he whipped around to aim the spiker at her, but the sharp edges of her scythe like end ended up in his stomach. His exposed, grey belly was exposed to her sharp tail. As she landed, Cyn looked back at the Brute. He did nothing, except stare at her scythe tail.

He looked at her with a desperate kind of a face. Vartus looked afraid for some reason. She was confused by this. The Brute dropped his spiker. The blood slowly seeped out of his stomach and he only said one more thing before the final move.

"Don't...pull" Vartus begged. Cynder didn't reply, instead, she stared into his eyes, and he knew she wouldn't give him mercy. In a sudden act, Cynder pulled her tail out of the Brute, but that's not all that came out, she pulled out his intestines. Her scythe tail ended up impaling his organs.

The Brute gurgled his dark purplish-blue-red liquid out of the mouth and what's left of his stomach. Cynder dragged his intestines on the floor then shook it all off. It smelt like any other dead corpse, but much worse. They were a dull red coloured kind of organs. Cynder almost puked from that sight, if she had known her tail could catch the Brute's organs, she would have done something else, but instead, this all left a bad smell. The body dropped dead, feeling the same kind of the thud the other Stalker made. Cynder backed away from the corpse and turned around to see Spyro coming towards her at normal pace.

The other Brute Stalker was finally

"Oh no...I just killed him in cold blood. He was begging me to pull but I ignored him and now...oh ancestors forgive me" The dragoness actually regretted doing this. Even if he was the enemy and that he had to die, but not like that. No one should die like that.

"Cynder, he was Brute. If he'd have done that to you, do you think he would guilty for it?" Spyro licked her right cheek, making her feel just a bit better.

"No...I guess not..." Cynder looked back at the dead Brute.

Jabjab ran over to Yapflop's burnt body. He panted heavily, breathing in and out his methane tank. He dropped to his knees and rolled Yapflop over. Slowly, the orange armoured grunt revealed his burnt scars. His armour was scarred black all over it, his skin shown some of his light blue blood. He'd have never seen Yapflop injured like this. After a serious number of slaps to the head and tons of falls, fire seemed to be the grunt's weakness.

"Brother...are you...ok?" Jabjab was about to cry. He thought Yapflop would be gone from his life. If he was dead, who would listen to the green armoured grunt. No one except Yapflop listened to him. He was about to cry tears. A grunt rarely does it, only in time of great sorrow. This was one of them.

"Jabjab...is that you?" Yapflop was barely alive. He survived the grenade roasting. He opened his to look at Jabjab.

"Yapflop! Thank the dude who is watching over us! please tell me you're going to be fine?" Jabjab begged for an answer, resting his hands in Yapflop.

"I...don't know but...did you see me? I was on fire! it was...pretty cool" the grunt looked like he was smiling. Jabjab seemed happy to know that Yapflop is probably going to be ok.

"Well dude...you do have a few third degree burns on you, heh!" Jabjab tried helping Yapflop up. Spyro and Cynder smiled at the two grunts. They never thought those two would get this far without getting killed.

"Alright then! Yapflop's going to be fine, so...how are we going to destroy that reactor now?" Jabjab pointed at the plasma reactor, which was directly behind the two dragons. Everyone of them were very confused. With Kintra dead, how were they going to do this.

"There has to be a way" Cynder mumbled.

"Congratulation dragoness. You and the rest of the freak show just killed the two most elite Stalkers of the entire Jiralhanae force. I must say, that's actually quite a feat, especially for you" a sinister voice spoke to the 4 of them. Cynder tilted her head near the lift, which was intact from the battle.

She couldn't believe it. Her heart pumped radically as she stared at the missing Sangheili from the hanger. Spyro and the grunts looked in her direction. In front of them was the Spec ops. Shenko was here in the plasma reactor. He stood with his arms on his both sides, holding a concussion rifle in his right hand. Why was he here? why was he missing from the hanger.

"Sh-Shenko? what are you doing here? how come you didn't help us fight those Brutes?" Spyro was almost speechless. Jabjab, who limping Yapflop over to support him, stood next to the dragons.

Shenko slowly started circling them. He was making sure they weren't going nowhere.

"Dragons, grunts. I have been keeping a little secret all this time. I'm not exactly an ally on the Sangheili" Shenko voice darkened the souls of the group. What was he talking about.

"What do you mean? you're a Sangheili, that means you're of their forces" Jabjab asked the Spec ops.

"Grunt...It would be a waste of time telling you all my dirty secrets because...you're all going to die. What's the point of talking if I'm just going to kill you anyway" Shenko opened the port of the concussion rifle and inserted a battery in there, arming the weapon.

"Shenko...what are you saying" Cynder begun to be suspicious of him. She started having the urge to attack Shenko. Unfortunately, the Spec ops wasn't alone.

Coming out of the huge column maze, a large, bronze armoured chieftain wielding a plasma cannon went to stand next to Shenko. Shock and realisation came upon everyone. The Brute wasn't attacking him at all. He was...his ally. Which only meant one thing.

"Ras'skar! You've turned against us! but why?" Cynder demanded answers right now, right this instant. Shenko wasn't willing to share.

"I'm sorry dear...things change. I'm afraid, these are your last moments. Enjoy them, while you still can" Shenko aimed the rifle at them. Ras'skar Shenko has been with the Jiralhanae all this time. He was asset, he was the Sangheili's liability.

**I apologise if the battle seemed to short, but another is comin up. will Thel be able to get to Cyn and the others before Shenko and Jikartus annihilate them? get it? annihilate and I'm annihilator 78 eh? uh, ah never mind.**

**Anyway have a nice day**


	35. Revelations, now it's her turn

Shenko kept his aim at the group. Yapflop was still badly burnt from Vartus' incendiary firebomb grenade, with his methane pack scarred all over. He and Jabjab were afraid that if his pack was even further damaged, it would explode, killing poor little Yapflop. And if that doesn't kill him, the slow leak of methane will. Little green smoke was slowly pouring out of it. He would probably suffocate without it. His skin exposed his light blue blood, with black scars around the lined wounds. Jabjab was his only support.

Spyro and Cynder defended the vulnerable grunts, lowering their bodies down defensively and fiercely, with exposed teeth growling at the war chieftain Drektus and the Spec ops Sangheili traitor Shenko. Their wings spread out to become even more protective over the two grunts, almost concealing them. Cynder's magenta wings, Spyro's orange wings and themselves were the only thing between the grunts and their demise. Drektus kept a good aim with a plasma cannon in his hands, aiming at the two dragons.

Luckily for Spyro, he still had some of his armour on, but he left his helmet back at the dropship. He thought he wouldn't need it but now he started to regret it. Cynder's bleeding nostrils finally started to dim down and she could slowly breathe much better, but she could still smell the dead Stalker's rotting corpse. The bleeding in her mouth already stopped, which is one of the many good things about the dragon species healing faster than others, depending on much combat experience they've had and their many battle wounds, in Cynder's case, would be a lot.

Drektus was twitching his finger on the cannon's trigger, urging to shoot all of them, but Shenko once again started speaking with the two dragons again.

"What's wrong dragons? you seem surprised that a Brute isn't trying to kill me" Shenko took a step forward, not willing to let them go.

"You...you've betrayed everyone you've known Shenko! You've betrayed Thel, Ventor, everyone who fought in your Human-Covenant war, everyone from your planet that fought against that Prophet of Truth, you have turned against them all...even the ones who died fighting him..." Cynder was completely outraged by this. She never thought someone from the Sangheili race would defect to the Jiralhanae. Strangely, Shenko lowered his weapon.

"Betrayed? I haven't betrayed anyone Cynder! I'm trying to negotiate a peace with a race that we've rivalled against for centuries, a race that, if nothing is done about it, will destroy our planet and our entire civilisation! We will be cascaded into extinction! I haven't betrayed my species, I'M SAVING THEM FROM CERTAIN DOOM!" Shenko's voice arose through the room. The Spec ops has revealed his plan to make a neutral pact between the elites and the brutes.

"Damn you..." Cynder wanted to know more about what this elite was up to, and she knew how to get him to talk. The dragoness receded her defence, folding in her wings and standing normally. Spyro looked at her, wondering why she wasn't in her defence stance.

"Cynder..." Spyro secretly begged her to be prepared for an attack by the Spec ops and chieftain.

"Give me a minute Spyro" Cyn whispered and looking up at traitor, stare for stare.

"Ok Shenko. You have got us, but before you kill us, you might as well tell us what you have been doing with the Brutes this entire time, from start to finish" Cynder wanted to know everything that Shenko has been up to and once he finished, she hoped for a miracle to get to them before they're bodies are plasma chow. Shenko made a low, evil growl in his neck. He used this time to think, should he tell her all his doings and plans or just kill the dragoness on the spot. He turned to Drektus, wanting an answer from the Brute. All he did was nod, giving the Spec ops his permission. Shenko turned back to Cyn.

"Hmm...well, since you're all going to die anyway, I suppose I can tell how it all started. I'm only going to say all of this once, so listen carefully, or your deaths won't be as sweet when you've already heard of my doings" Shenko began circling around them again, having Drektus keep hold of the cannon in case they tried anything. Cynder smirked, this information might be invaluable to the Sangheili and is most likely to point at Shenko's betrayal.

"At the end of the war, leaving only the Shadow as the last ship to survive in the fleet, I knew the Brutes would be able to find and destroy our entire civilisation on Sangheilios. I knew they had a few surviving ships left after Truth's death, but they had an Assault Carrier exactly like the Shadow" Shenko began circling them,

"I was able to learn that Rtas's position as Shipmaster was replaced by Thel Vadam and I remembered the attempted assassination on the Arbiter that settled down the Unggoy rebellions. I heard that the only reason that warrior tried to kill the Arbiter is because his older brother died by swarms of the runts. Us special breed of warriors wanted the Grunts gone from existence but that wretched Arbiter used simple, cowardice negations with a race that is so pathetic, they couldn't even kill a Human child!" Shenko clenched his fists in anger. He was incredibly serious about his rank's history.

A hum from the lift was made, grabbing Shenko's attention, thinking something came down from it. He cocked his around and saw absolutely nothing, except a bunch of columns. The Spec ops made a low growl before turning back to the small group.

"So anyway, I contacted the Brutes. It was easy to break through their channels, they were somewhat...primitive. No offence Drektus" Shenko looked at his Brute buddy.

"Just get on with it Sangheili" Drektus's patience wore thin.

"In any case, I was able to make contact with Chieftain Magnaruckus. I already assume you've met him, have you not?" Shenko looked directly at the two dragons. Cynder narrowed her eyes down at the traitorous Sangheili. Of course the dragoness knows about Maggie, She's the one that gave the Brute a scar on his eye.

"Ok, I'd assume so. I told him about the new leadership onboard the Shadow and also told him that it was the only ship left that survived the Ark battle. He told me that his Battlecruiser and their only Assault Carrier, with the help of a few Corvettes, were going to attack Sangheilios. I made a deal with him and the rest of the Jiralhanae. They cancel the attack on our homeworld and I give out the Shadow of Intent's trajectory path to Sangheilios...he agreed" His voice suddenly soured, stopping in front of the two dragons, looking down upon them like a giant.

"They...we're going to attack Thel's homeworld?" Cynder was shocked. Was what Shenko did a good thing? or a bad one.

"Indeed. An hour before we departed from the Human's planet, I sabotaged the slip space drive. It malfunctioned and short circuited. It wouldn't work anymore".

"Wait, a slip space drive? that's the device used to get around the galaxy with ease isn't it?" Spyro asked the elite.

"Yes, and since I sabotaged it, we wasn't able to slip space to Sangheilios, so Thel ordered the ship to travel back home normally by cruising the ship through space, which would take at least a two day journey. At that moment, I gave the Brutes the ship's plotted course that the Shadow was using to get us home. When I told Magnaruckus about its trajectory...his Battlecruiser and their last Assault Carrier intercepted it" Shenko started lifting his helmet off his head, but before he finished doing it, Cynder interrupted him.

"And they was able to take out the Shadow, causing it to crash on the planet! IT WAS ALL YOUR FAULT! YOU WERE BEHIND ALL OF IT" Cynder growled like a feral beast, threatening Shenko with her sharp exposed teeth.

"Watch your attitude freak flyer! or I'll kill you and just simply doom you race forever!" Drektus fearsomely snapped at her, still keeping aim at them all with that damn plasma cannon.

Shenko took off his helmet and revealed his face. He has many small scars around the sides, but he had 2 blue striped markings going from between his eyes to the back end of his neck. He must've gotten the facial paint job when he joined the Brutes. The scars may have come from the many battles he fought before having to use a helmet. He dropped it on the floor, making a metallic bang as a reaction.

"Don't you see Cynder? By giving the Brutes the location of the Shadow, I diverted them off track to Sangheilios, I saved the planet!" Shenko raised his hands in the air like a religious zealot, feeling proud for what he did.

"But at the cost of almost the entire crew of the Shadow. Who's to say that the elite homeworld actually had their own ships defending it! If what Magnaruckus said is true, and the Sangheili are better tacticians in space, so Thel says, the Brutes would have lost anyway. Tell me this Ras'skar Shenko; if you saved Sangheilios by diverting Magnaruckus and those two ships to attack the Shadow, why are you helping them by trying to recover information about the reactor cores of an Assault Carrier, so they could build more and attack Sangheilios?" Cynder had hopefully got him on this one to expose him as the traitor he is, but he had another excuse.

"Because, I seen what both the Sangheili and the Jiralhanae are capable of! If I reunite them back together again, by helping them, both our civilisations can be rebuilt with much ease. No Prophet to yap on about forerunner religion crap, no flood to threaten our galaxy, everything will be back the way it was, all thanks to me" Shenko placed his left hand on his chest, awed that he thinks he making a better tomorrow.

"Shenko...what if you're wrong. What if the Jiralhanae has made a large number of Assault Carriers just to simply attack Sangheilios. The elites wouldn't be able to defend themselves. I may have not seen their fleet, but remembering what Thel told me, they would not be able to stop the invasion. You wouldn't have save them...you doomed them" she asked the Sangheili.

Shenko looked back at Drektus, wondering what the Brute thought of this. All he got in reply was a low growl. He expected Shenko to realize what he was doing was wrong and was going to kill him at that moment, but the Spec ops turned back to Cynder to answer her question.

"If something like that comes to pass then...I know that I helped the Brutes kill Thel Vadam...as well as you and the rest of your wretched race" he reached out for his concussion rifle with his right arm and held it with the one hand, and resumed aiming at them.

"You evil, twisted monster..." Spyro went right by Cynder's side, disgusted by Shenko's intentions.

"Stupid Elite, I hope Arbiter rips you in half and gives the rest of the remains to the Flood things on those other Halos" Yapflop coughed out.

"You big, traitorous pile of crap!" Jabjab insulted the elite even further.

All this only seemed to push Shenko even further to pulling the trigger...and he did. He fired two rounds at Yapflop with no warning, sending him flying from Jabjab's support and into a wall. When he hit the ground, he was out knocked out or most likely dead. He wasn't moving, nor breathing.

"YAPFLOP! NO! MONST-AGH!" Jabjab was also hit by two shots from Shenko's rifle. The poor Grunt was sent sliding across the floor, leaving small trails of his light blue blood, and colliding with a column, which he hit very hard.

Spyro and Cynder looked back with shocked expressions, both their jaws dropped in absolute devastation. The Grunts were barely a threat to the traitor, but he didn't give a damn what he did to them. It must've been in his blood to kill Unggoy in the first place, taking it from the Spec ops who wanted them gone, but was stopped by the earlier Arbiter.

Spyro turned back to the Elite with unbearable anger and recklessly leapt at Shenko to attack him, but he grabbed the purple dragon by his neck with his right hand, choking him, he spread out his left arm and unleased an energy dagger and shoved it right through Spyro's abdomen, his exposed belly. Anyone could hear the weapon's searing, impaling strike as it went through him. The blade went straight through his internal organs and coming out his back, mostly likely through his spine.

Spyro's amethyst eyes widened. He didn't scream, nor cry in pain. He was almost silent, feeling the blade inside him. It was the most excruciating pain he has felt in a very long time. It was unbelievably more painful than an arrow hitting him or Magnaruckus's berserk collision. It was even more painful than any elemental abilities that he has received, from Cynder's dark, evil past to Malefor's most powerful attacks. His vision slowly blurred, making Shenko look like mush as he stared at the traitor.

Cynder turned around and her darkest fears and nightmares grabbed her and shuddered. The one she loved so much was being killed with a most terrifying close quarter weapon. What horrified her the most though, is that she felt Spyro's very own life slowly leaving hers. The black dragoness couldn't do anything to save him, not with Drektus holding the cannon. She try anything, she would be shot. She had no choice but to be tortured by watching Spyro be killed by the traitorous and more recently, murderous Sangheili.

"Unwise purple dragon...most...unwise" Shenko's sinister tone consumed Spyro's mind. He coughed salty, red blood up, making it his Ras'skar's face, but it didn't bother him one bit.

"Spyro..." Cynder didn't want to see it. She wanted to cover her head with her wings, but she didn't. She couldn't withstand not watching it. Her beloved was slowly slipping away from her grasp and her future.

In the instant of the moment, Shenko withdrew the blade from Spyro, leaving a hole in his yellow belly, which slowly leaked out even more of his red body liquid. He tossed the purple dragon aside to the right like a ragdoll, making him crash against a solid metal column. Cynder watched the whole thing. This was unbearable, mental torture that she could never hold against.

She slowly stepped over to Spyro, who laid on the floor with the blood spreading around his body. Drektus lifted the plasma cannon right up and prepared to shoot Cynder but a hand was placed on his shoulder. Shenko wanted to watch this without interruption.

"No, wait, I want to see what happens..." he demanded to watch this. He was going to get some sick pleasure out this. Killing a loved one by another seemed to quench his thirst for entertainment. He smiled to prove it.

Cynder stopped next to him. Dread overcame her, nightmares consumed her mind, death was knocking on Spyro's doorstep. She dropped her body onto the floor, draping her front right arm over Spyro's neck and placing her front left front one under and lifted his head. Her emerald eyes gazed upon Spyro's closed amethyst ones. He slowly lifted the both of them, but he was struggling keep them open. He turned to Cynder's face. Although his vision was still blurry, he could see Cynder's tears slowly leak out of her eyes. She tried wiping them away with her wings, as well as the last of her bloodied nostrils, but she couldn't stop them. Her heart was overshadowed, plunged into the depths of darkness.

She didn't want to admit Spyro leaving her life, she didn't want him die this early on in their time. Only a few days ago, they admitted their love for each other. Only a few days ago, they defeated Malefor and ended a supposed never ending war and saved the world from total annihilation. Cynder wanted this to last forever, for eternity, but their love, their future was slowly decaying...and dying.

"C-Cyn...Cynder...this kinda...r-r-reminds me what happened at the m-meadow...doesn't it with you? (coughs violently)" Spyro smiled. Although an energy weapon had been shoved into him, he was still brave and confident as always. Cynder was still dropping tears, but she kept her head up an tried to speak clearly to him.

"Spyro...you are so stubborn sometimes...(sobs)" Cynder smiled back at him, gently caressing the top of his head and between his horns. She licked him affectionately, willing to do whatever it takes to keep him alive, but all she can show him right now is her love and her will to make sure she gets him through this.

He coughed up more of his blood, Cynder tried to keep him still to make sure he didn't go into shock. She laid her head against his, not giving up hope. She wanted to tell him everything that she was hoping for their future and she spoke crystal clear, making sure he could listen to every word.

"Spyro, don't leave me (sniffs). I love you, more than you know it. I want you, I need you. I want to become your mate, I want to see our little hatchlings run around freely without a care in the world. I want to see them grow up. I'm all yours Spyro...and you're all I need. You can't just leave my life like this...not now. I don't want anyone else BUT you!" she pulled him closer to her chest, so she could cover his head with her neck and lay hers against his with more comfort. Spyro could hear her beating heart. He loved every pump it made, it assured him that Cynder was alive and well, and healthy.

"Stay with me my purple saviour...don't...die...on...me" she was trying almost everything to keep him alive, but without any red crystals or medical aid, he will die. The sick bastard Shenko happily watched the two, enjoying their love fair, but also enjoying the thought of them losing their future.

"Cynder...if I die" Spyro tried to speak, but the fatal wound was trying to stop him.

"You're NOT going to die!" she held him oh so close to her body, not willing to give up their hope.

"But if I do...please go and live on. You may remember me but don't let the memories control you. There may be nothing to bring me back...don't let the memories of our time together consume you Cynder. You wouldn't want that" Spyro was quite worried that if he did die, she would go insane without him. She tried to not think about it, but she did reply.

"O-ok...just stay with me" she pulled her head back to look at the purple dragon.

She passionately kissed him, lip for lip. A moan from Cynder escaped her, enjoying their moment together, maybe for the last time. After a minute, they both needed breathe, but both dragons especially enjoyed such an amazing feeling. Spyro mostly ignored his wound at the time.

Suddenly, Spyro slowly sunk his down in her arms. This was not at all a good sign for the black dragoness.

"No...NO! DON'T YOU DARE LEAVE ME!" Cynder demanded, begging Spyro not to go out.

Unfortunately, he didn't reply. He sunk his head even more until he stopped moving. He was still in Cynder's arms. She couldn't tell if Spyro was breathing or not. Worry darkened her.

"I JUST SAID DON'T LEAVE ME...don't die on me..." Cynder released a cry of sorrow. It consumed her.

He barely made a move. He wouldn't open his eyes. There wasn't much breathing either. Cynder's face darkened. She didn't want to admit it. Was he actually gone? The dragoness lowered her head in his shoulder, taking no more of it,

Shenko chuckled, absolutely loving this.

"Hahaha! Oh my, a little dragon love/death fest, oh rich" Shenko wiped away a tear of laughter.

"Ha-ha, freak flyer loving? never seen, nor heard of it, Ha!" Drektus was also enjoying this, unable to hold it in, until suddenly, an enraged but familiar voice shouted out to them.

"SHENKO! YOUR TRAITOROUS, MURDEROUS BEHIND WILL BE MINE!" Thel Vadam ran out from a column and went straight to tackle the Spec ops traitor.

He turned around and was suddenly spear tackled in the gut, sending him up crashing through 3 columns, all being destroyed as he went through them. They collapsed and sent up a wall of dust everywhere. Thel was rolling when he ended the tackle and was kneeling when he stopped. He got up and stared at the Jiralhanae.

Drektus dropped the plasma cannon went to attack Thel, but the fist he sent at Vadam was caught by the Arbiter's right hand. He punched him in the stomach, disabling home for a few seconds and kicked him in the chest, causing the Brute to fall on his back.

Thel breathed heavily. He heard almost everything Shenko said about his betrayal and also had to watch Spyro receive a fatal wound to the abdomen. He looked at the two dragons, feeling the sorrow and guilt. He was so terribly sorry that this had happened. He looked at the smouldering ruins of the tree columns, waiting for Shenko to pop out, but the Brute got up first and challenged Thel to melee combat.

"Come Sangheili, face me at your own peril!" Drektus demanded. Thel relinquished his two energy daggers on his wrists, the same exact ones Shenko use Spyro. He prepared to face the Brute on its own terms.

Before the two even battled, Shenko broke out of the ruins, furious that Thel was here this entire time. He stepped over the damaged rocks and got out in front of the damage. He was going to watch Drektus and Thel fight but then he noticed the shattered Cynder, the dragoness who might have lost her future. Shenko chuckled. He still couldn't help it and he wanted it to go further by killing the dragoness herself. But first, he wanted to taunt her, see what she would do.

"What's wrong you poor thing, lost boy toy have you? shame, it could have been worse, I could have simply blown him up with the rifle, or threw him into the reactor, you know, like that Kintra fellow? C'mon! come at me you bitch!" Shenko cursed in the Human language. Then all of a sudden, Cynder didn't seem right. She didn't normal.

"You're going to pay Shenko. You're going to pay dearly for what you've done" Cynder's voice instantly changed into something dark and more menacing. Every scale on her body was going dark, exactly like what happened to Spyro at the meadow, only more...discomforting.

"What the? what is this black magic?" Shenko backed away from her.

"Black magic...no, you mean black dragon...or dragoness Ras'skar Shenko" Cynder turned her attention to Shenko, revealing white, clear eyes. They weren't emerald anymore. "YOU WILL DIE LIKE THE WRETCHED ANIMAL YOU ARE SHENKO!" It wasn't Cyn anymore...consumed by Dark Cynder.

**If you were expecting a battle in this part, I apologise, I just like to draw the little love/sad scenarios. Also, I needed to tell about Shenko's background story. Anyways, I hope you enjoyed and YAY, 50 reviews! I'm quite pleased if I say so myself.**

**P.S: Planewalker, if you're reading this, PM me, need a little quick chat about somethin, k? alright.**


	36. Chapter 35 part 1: Dark Cynder vs Shenko

"WHAT IN THE PROPHET'S DEAD CASKET TURNED YOU INTO AN ABOMINATION?" Shenko backed away from the dark dragoness. It was the same Dark Cynder that Malefor was able to unleash upon Spyro, just before they fought.

"You brought this on yourself Shenko! PREPARE TO DIE A HORRIBLE, MISERABLE DEATH! MURDERER!"

The once beautiful, smart and cunning Cynder was now consumed by her darker form, exactly like how Spyro is controlled by his darker form. Shenko had pushed her anger to its limits and now it has gone too far. Now, although Spyro was the first to bring this brunt upon the Jiralhanae, Shenko will be the first of his kind to witness Cynder's fury...and to be obliterated by it.

As she started running forward, closer to Shenko, and absolutely scaring the demons out of him, the Spec ops traitor pulled the concussion rifle from his back to fire upon Dark Cynder, with 3 blasts heading straight for her. She rolled to her right side, evading the three shots passing her, hitting the columns behind the dark dragoness and causing them to collapse. An evil hiss was the only reply she gave to Shenko after that waste on an attack.

His eyes widened in total horror as the dark dragoness continued running at the elite. He fired another 3 concussion blasts at the dragoness, who was trying to flank his left side. The dragoness again evaded the blasts by rolling forward. All Shenko was able to hit were columns! Too many damn columns. He started to extremely worry because he had to replace a battery in his rifle, but when Cynder finished rolling forward, she leapt into the air, just at Shenko's head height.

Shifting his body directly in front of the dragoness, Shenko's mandibles dropped in horrifying shock as he now stares at her. She had really turned evil, but the good kind of evil. He was able to get a split second to stare at her new look as Dark Cynder lashed her scythe tail at him, hitting and scarring the elite, giving him a long gash across under his left eye. Shenko's head jerked to the side and stumbled away, after receiving such a hit, but the dark dragoness wasn't done yet. She spiralled her body the other was lashed out another attack, hitting her tail against him.

Shenko stumbled away a second time, dropping the rifle. His body could not, and cannot, resist such a tremendous amount of power. He tried his luck by punching the dragoness, whilst she was at his level of height, but before he could even touch her, she flew over his head and caught onto his back armour. Her sharp, shadowed claws dug deep into his armour, but it was so thick, she couldn't touch his skin. Shenko knew she was on his back and he struggled trying to grab her, but she got to the top of his hunched back and she then able to shove her claws into his skin.

Screaming in agonising pain, Shenko was stumbling all over the floor, trying desperately to grab her, but the dragoness then got her maw around his neck and her teeth dug through him. The Sangheili traitor was being battered and bloodied by the Dark Cynder's relentless assault. She wasn't willing to let go, she wanted to make him suffer for all he did by spilling large amounts of blood. She could try and kill him right now, but her darkened mind won't allow that. Suffering first, then death, was her tasks.

AGGHH! GET OFF ME YOU BITCH! YOU'RE TEARING MY NECK OFF!" Shenko was experiencing the most painful attacks ever made to him and still tried to grab her. The dragoness's weight was heavy enough from Shenko to be kneeling on the floor as his blood dripped on metal he stood on.

Unnoticed by it, Shenko finally grabbed the dragoness. Pulling the struggling creature in front of him, and losing a lot of blood doing so, he kicked her, with the bottom of his left foot and sent the dragoness into the hundreds and thousands of columns. By going through them, Shenko lost track of the dragoness and had no choice but to enter the column area himself and risk being attack at close quarters again.

With a moan, he picked up his rifle and opened its battery port to insert a new battery. He closed it and set off to find the dark dragoness and kill her, before she finds him and kills him instead. He looked at the battle between Drektus and Thel. He noticed that the Brute was bleeding just as much as he was and Thel physically hurt almost all over his body. The Arbiter was beating up the Brute with his bare hands, whilst pinning him to the ground. Shenko wondered why Thel wasn't using his energy blades upon the Brute.

In any case, He cautiously entered the column maze. He was expecting the unexpected in this treacherous game of cat and mouse. Looking left and right, front and behind, he could not see where the dark dragoness was. She was either hiding or setting up a trap.

"Cynder...come out, come out wherever you are, I just want rip your head off and sell it to a Brute!" Shenko was trying to lure her out of hiding.

Suddenly a black, 4 legged figure instantly hit him in the right side. Stumbling around, he checked his every side, but whatever hit him was gone. His two hearts raced. Dark Cynder attacked him, but with such speed. He then received another hit on his left side. She was attacking while he wasn't looking! Her tactics was hit and run, without mercy. This was her fighting territory.

"COWARD! COME OUT AND FIG-AGH!" Shenko was hit again. She was too fast for him, unknown how she was hitting with.

3 more times, Shenko was hit by Cynder's hit and run tactics. Every time he looked and aimed one way, he'd get hit from the sides or behind. This wasn't a fair fight...to him. He finally lost it, firing shots of his concussion rifle everywhere, hoping to hit something. All those 6 shots ever did was hit the columns surrounding him. Some of them were close to him and the blast radius's hit him hard. He was moving around like he was hit in the head by something heavy, stumbling side to side. He even walked into an undamaged column, with a huge smack against it.

Regaining most of his conscious, he reloaded the rifle with another battery, but once he put it in, the dark dragoness caught him by surprise once more, jumping onto his chest and making the elite fall on his back. Cynder stood on top of him, growling at him with a feral like voice. Like she did with the Brute Stalker, she used her claws to his Shenko, jerking his head side to side, but this time, she used her claws, gashing with each hit. 5 times on each side, bloodying the Sangheili and he started to lose this fight, but then he grabbed Cynder by her neck with his left hand.

With his right free and holding the dragoness up whilst she continued trying to claw him a new one, Shenko was able to reach for the rifle and aim at her belly. Ras'skar finally got the upper hand, holding the dragoness up and having the gun aim at one of her weak spots. He fired all 6 rounds at her, all causing unbearable pain to Cynder, as she made a high pitched, not very dragon kind of scream. The blasts the rifle created made her belly bleed, her dark skin was burnt from the rifle's plasma.

Shenko wasn't done yet. He jumped back up whilst still holding the dragoness in both his hands, on the neck and just under her chest. He smashed her against the columns recklessly, hoping to break some of her bones doing this. He smashed her against one, damaging the small rockish, metalish structure, creating a cloud of dust. He then pulled her out and sent her into the next one, making the same demolished sound. He repeated this process three times with 3 columns, beating and battering up the dragoness with all his strength. In an attempt to kill her, Shenko aimed and threw her battered body at the plasma reactor, which was just 10 metres away.

"ENJOY DISINTERGRATION ABOMINATION!" Shenko called out to her, shouting from his position.

In mid air, she was unconscious. Her eyes weren't even opened. Those white, sparkling but evil eyes were closed from being smashed into those columns. Her entire darkened body was beaten up and bruised and she was doing nothing to stop herself from being turned into dust by the reactor.

With great timing though, her white eyes opened once again, realizing what she was being thrown into the deadly machine. Just a few feet from the pulsing reactor, the dark dragoness opened and spread her wings right out to stop herself from ending up like Kintra. She had the reactor to her back and she stared at the Spec ops, who stomped a right foot in anger and failure.

"DAMN IT! WHAT DOES IT TAKE TO KILL A SCRAWNY CREATURE LIKE YOU?" Shenko was getting utterly tireless of this fighting. He never expected a battle against a creature like Cynder to be so hard.

Picking up his dropped rifle again, he put in another battery. As he did though, Dark Cynder was coming at full speed, using her wind abilities go even faster. Shenko didn't even have time to aim and as the dragoness rammed into his chest with such force, he was sent across the room, going through many columns and causing a path of destruction. To him, it felt like a Wraith hit him with the speed of Ghost. He ended up going near the centre of the room to the round area containing all the columns.

He hit the wall with tremendous force. He only sat there now and thought about the situation he was in. He looked up to see his enemy, and nightmare, slowly but surely getting closer to him. He was almost finished. He only had one battery left for the rifle, which was still full, having only 6 shots to destroy her with. That wasn't enough. She was far too powerful for him, she had abilities a lesser being like himself would never have. He knew he would never win this battle now and will have to take risks in order to kill her now.

With a deep groan, he lifted his weapon with only his right hand. He was aiming directly, very willing to stop her from making his demise. He fired one plasma bolt at her. All it did was whip right pass her, missing the shot.

"Ung! I will annihilate you Cynder!" Shenko was blinded by his goals, unable to see the truth. He unleashed three more shots upon her, but holding a rifle with one hand has bad accuracy. They passed right by her, destroying the columns instead.

He fired again, using the second last one, but this time, it was heading straight for her. Unfortunately for Shenko, Dark Cynder lashed out her tail, hitting the heavy plasma bolt and sending back right at the elite. His eyes widened, he couldn't believe his own attack was coming right back at him. The projectile hit, causing severe damage to his armour making him bleed around his neck.

"That...doesn't seem possible!" Shenko moaned in torment. The dragoness was coming at an even closer distance now.

"Anything is possible when it comes to darkness! Shenko!" Dark Cynder's voice frightened the devil out of the Spec ops. She was a menacing, evil instrument of death and vengeance, attacking a different kind of evil that threatens both her race and the Sangheili. Now with Malefor gone, her dark form is off its leash and has one purpose: Eradicate the ones who made her go dark in the first place, and make them pay dearly for it.

"I don't need a lecture you FREAK!" Shenko fired his last shot at her. Again, she lashed her tail out to deflect the bolt right back at him.

The explosive ordinance hit his rifle, causing an explosion in his right hand, destroying the rifle and something much more important to him. His bottom mandibles dropped, his eyes widened, as he stares in horror of his right hand. It wasn't there anymore. The purple blood gushed out of his veins with the bone completely exposed, covered in his organic liquid. He screamed at the top of his lungs, suffering from his lost body part. The entire plasma reactor room was filled it.

"AAAGGHH! MY HAND! YOU BLEW OFF MY HAND!" Shenko pressed his bloodied arm against his stomach, putting as much pressure on it as he could, but it only wasted the least of his potential.

"How does it feel Shenko? What you're experiencing is just a small part of the suffering you made to many individuals! You're little stunt with the slip space drive caused inevitability of your own people dying I mean! Attacking defenceless little creatures like Jabjab and Yapflop, while they had nothing to defend themselves with!" Cynder was almost in front of him, her deathly shadow voice ran through Shenko's body, corrupting it with fear and darkness.

"I WAS ONLY DOING WHAT I HAD TO DO! MY PEOPLE ARE A STUBBORN RACE! THEY ALL DESERVED TO DIE!" Shenko shouted right in her face, but the dark dragoness retaliated fiercely by pinning his neck against the wall, digging her claws of her right paw through him. He was just lucky his windpipe wasn't impaled at that moment.

"NO ONE DESERVES TO SUFFER FOR SOMETHING THEY NEVER DONE! THEY WERE NEVER INVOLVED IN THE ARBITER AND SPEC OPS FEUD! NO ONE HAD TO DIE BECAUSE OF THAT, But you were blinded by past events and only revenge could get rid of it" her voice hissed at him. He coughed up his blood, having a hard time breathing with the dragoness pinning him against the wall. He no choice but to listen to her dark voice

"And now you may have just destroyed my only chance to have a future! To have a life without war, without conflict! My one and only chance to have a family with the one I loved so much, the one that saved me from my corrupted prison! The one I fought with, side by side against evil beings like you! After all that, I thought it was over and I could settle down! Until this ship crashed...the crash you caused...THIS IS ALL ON YOUR OWN HEAD!" she pressed hard against his fragile neck. Although she was in her darkest and evil form, she still retained some of her feelings from her normal being.

Shenko could see a tear fall down from her eyes. He has only pissed off one of the most powerful creatures on this planet by destroying her future, by destroying her new life, by endangering her entire race. She was not to be taken likely, but the elite ignored it all. Now he pays the price.

"Before I kill you Shenko...I'm going to show you the suffering of the many people that have died for you're stupid revenge...the deaths and torment of the ones you created yourself" the dark dragoness closed her white eyes. Her body started pulsing a red aura.

The traitor looked around, frightened of what's going on. After a minute of an unnatural event, All the red aura entered Shenko's mind. His pupils slit very thinly as he could see dark red images of the Shadow's crew. An image came up with Sangheili being killed during the impact of the ship's crash. He could even hear their screams, they're dying, tormented screams. The unbearable shouting continued as he could see images of the dead crew, from their fresh corpses to the Brutes mutilating their bodies. Ghostly, piercing screaming clouded his mind as more images of the crew were shown. They also came up with different views and perspectives of him shooting the defenceless Grunts. A sudden image of him shoving the energy blade into Spyro came into view. All this was torturing him, hurting him mentally.

Dark Cynder finally opened her eyes to see a screaming, insane elite. He was struggling to get free from her grasp, but he was too weak. Still being tormented by the images in his head, the dragoness brought her tail around aimed it at Shenko's stomach. She will impale him when her Fear abilities start to wear thin. Her final move Sangheili will be made after it.

As the images started to fade, he could finally get a better bit of breath, but he felt a sharp pain down his gut. He looked down to see a scythe like object entering his abdomen. Shenko looked up to see Cynder, who was smiling, happy that she made him suffer what others had.

"Please...have mercy dragoness..." Shenko begged to be spared, but his actions have gone too far ever since sabotaging the slip space drive.

"Shenko...I'm a dark dragoness...I don't show mercy to murderers!" she retracted her claws out of his neck, but he lifted him up in the air with just her tail, showing how much strength she had in it.

"No...I don't want to die!" he cried for it. She narrowed her eyes down. She's done with Ras'skar Shenko now.

"YOU KILLED COUNTLESS OTHERS, YOU DESERVE THIS SHENKO! I HOPE YOU ROT IN HELL" Cynder whipped around, sending Shenko screaming through the air, heading straight for the reactor.

He wasn't going to hit it though as he slowly started descending to the ground but the dark dragoness opened her maw for a final attack. A dark, purple light well up in her, gathering all her strength and power for this final strike at the elite.

With all the power she had gathered ready to fire, a dark convexity beam was shot out of her jaws and it headed straight for the Sangheili. He had been hit by it and was sent straight at the reactor. His shouted his last word before his demise at the hands of the dragoness.

"CYYYYYYNNNNNNDDDDEEEERRRRR!" the beam hit the reactor, creating a cataclysmic explosion and eradicating Shenko from the face of the universe.

Dark purple and blue explosions were created from the centre of the pulsing device. This was going to create the chain reaction to destroy the Shadow once and for all. The sound of the place preparing to blow was unbelievable. A convexity beam, combined with the power of a plasma reactor and main reactor itself, all the land around the Shadow will be nothing but dust shortly.

Cynder though, was panting heavily. She used all her power to deliver the final blow. The darkness surrounding her started receding back into her body. She stumbled back and forth, unable to stay balanced on her feet. She toppled over on her left side. Her entire body was back the way it was. Her eyes were emerald once more, but her vision was so blurry, she couldn't see anything and the ringing her head did not help her hearing.

All she saw before she blacked out was a silver armoured Sangheili looking over her with explosions right behind him. She thought these would be her final moments.

**Part 1 of chapter 36 completed, still the other part to go, the Thel vs Drektus fight. I don't know if you'd already know this but both battles were going on at the same time and I couldn't be bothered writing two fights in one chapter, that would be quite hard. I'm gonna let everyone know is that there will NOT be anymore spoilers from here on out, so hope for the best, plan for the worst and expect the unexpected. Longer fight than the Stalker battle, wasn't it eh? Alright, now I'm just yappin on, see ya till next time.**


	37. Chapter 35 part 2: Arbiter vs Drektus

Thel stared at Drektus, exchanging eye contact with one to the other. While Arbiter had a calm, cool state, the war Chieftain Drektus was hungry for Sangheili blood. His chest breathed in and out with heavy force, spreading his arms out to make sure Thel wasn't going to escape his grasp, and also to try and grab Thel with. Arbiter kept his energy daggers at his sides as the two circled around their area of battle, waiting for the first strike.

"Huh? Cynder? wh-what the?"

Thel made a small mistake by looking at Shenko and Dark Cynder. He twitched his eyes to see that the dark dragoness was using her scythe tail to attack the Spec ops with. At this moment, Drektus launched himself at Thel, running at a berserk speed, roaring like a feral beast. Thel turned to avoid an incoming punch at close quarters. As the Brute missed, Thel scrapped his left wrist energy dagger against Drektus's helmet, even scrapping his skin and causing him to bleed.

The force of Thel's swipe of the dagger sent Drektus sliding across the floor a few feet. He got up to realise his attack failed, and banged his right fist on the floor in rage, getting back up to attack the Arbiter once more. He threw another left punch at Thel but Arbiter grabbed Drektus's arm to hold him, giving him the chance to knee the Brute in the gut. Immobilized, Drektus felt the hit, holding his stomach. Thel took this chance to grab the Brute's face to stare at him. He head butted the Brute right in his face with his helmet. Drektus roared in pain as he stumbled backwards from the hard hit.

His nose started bleeding, as he looked his own blood on his own hands. Drektus was enraged by the sight, revealing his bone-crunching teeth. He got into a rugby like position, putting his right shoulder at the front of a ramming attack. Like a freight train, he went at full speed to attack the Arbiter. Thel rolled to the left side to avoid this act, but Drektus stopped right next to Thel and grabbed him by the neck with his left crushing hand, cutting off Arby's access to oxygen. He pinned Thel against the wall and once again went for the right fisted punch.

With quick-like reflexes, Thel impaled Drektus's wrist with the left energy dagger just before his head got pulverised. The Brute yelled in agony and released Thel, pulling the dagger out of his wrist. Drektus held his bloodied wrist and growled at Thel.

"YOU WILL PAY FOR THAT! BY THE PROPHET'S OWN WILL, YOU WILL PAY" Drektus threatened the mighty Arbiter, but he won't run away from low levelled threats. This was a battle that will end with one dying on the floor, no matter how long it will be fought for.

Thel crossed his arms like an X, protecting himself from the Brute's next attack. What Drektus did then was turn around to confront a column. With all his strength, He lifted it up, taking it out of its cradle. Thel widened his eyes as the Brute turned around and threw the column. Not having time to react, the column smashed into Thel, breaking apart and destroying Thel's defence. The force of the column sent Arbiter slamming into the wall behind him.

He grunted as a reaction from the impact on the wall, moaning in a horrendous pain. His started to breathe in and out much slowly, losing some of his energy and will to fight. He looked at both of his daggers. His right one was still in decent shape, but his left one was badly damaged and cannot be used. He ripped it off from his armour and chucked it away like useless trash, as it was.

Thel pulled the concussion rifle from his back, deactivating his only energy dagger that he had to weild the weapon with both hands for better accuracy. Realising that the Arbiter was armed, Drektus tried to run away from the weapon by weaving through the column field, but his sheer mass got him caught between the columns a couple of feet in. Arbiter relinquished 4 shots at the vulnerable Brute, all hitting his back and damaging his armour. Drektus roared from the painful hits, making him turn around to stare at Thel, but in front of the massive Brute was another concussion shot heading straight for his face. The bright pinkish red energy blast hit the War Chieftain like a fireball, sending his helmet flying through the air and landing far away from both former Covenant warriors.

Drektus wiped away the blood on his face, still having his teeth exposed to show his fierce potential, but the bloody nose, the missing teeth, the ruined face and the burnt facial hair just made Thel smirk, knowing he's making the Brute very angry. What Thel was trying to is make Drektus so angry, he would only go on reckless charges, giving the chance to strike at the Brute's most vulnerable points.

"I...HATE...YOU...SANGHEILI!" Drektus was sick of being the one hurt in this fight. He's tried some of his most brutal attacks, but he's little to know damage to Thel's strong fighting spirit. He was an Arbiter for a very specific reason.

"That's fine by me Brute, when I'm done with you, I might as well send your rotting corpse to Magnaruckus, to show that I am not an elite that you should underestimate!" Thel reactivated his dagger again, tossing the rifle on the ground.

"What? like Rtas's corpse? Har har har! what a weak fool he was" Drektus smiled deceptively. Thel growled, remembering the remains of his friend.

"DON'T YOU DARE TALK...ABOUT...RTAS! YOU MURDERER!" Thel ran at Drektus full speed, pulling his right wrist back, preparing to slice one of the chieftain's limbs off.

Before he could even touch him, Drektus punched Thel in the chest, widening his eyes from the powerful blow, dropping his mandibles. He coughed a good amount of his blood from the opening in his mouth, falling on his back. Drektus placed his left foot on Thel's chest and started to crush his ribs, poor Thel could not breathe as the last of his breath from a torrential and agonising scream of pain. He could even feel his ribs about to break like twigs.

"HA HA HA! PREPARE TO DIE ARBITER! (crashing sounds) Huh?" Drektus heard the sound of columns being destroyed. He saw Dark Cynder going through the multiple columns, creating a path of devastation.

Thel took this distraction as a chance to slice through Drektus's foot. He impaled the savage creature, but he didn't stop there. He dragged the blade through the Brute's lower part of his leg, slicing through multiple muscles and veins. The Brute opened his maw right open and roared at the top of his lungs, moving his foot away from Thel. Arbiter got up in the instant and, while Drektus turned around with eyes closed, he inserted the dagger into Drektus's spine and dragged it up like he did with the Brute's foot.

The War Chieftain stopped roaring as he felt the nerves in his spine be torn apart, feeling the cleansing energy of Sangheili technology in him. Thel wasn't stopping, now, he impaled the back of Drektus's neck, tearing through the spine, nerves and the windpipe. A Human would already be dead from attacks like this. The dagger wasn't coming out, it was stuck inside the Brute's neck, so Arbiter, with fury and fire inside of him, pulled the Brute's entire mass and sending him to the wall.

Drektus slid across the once clean floor, leaving trails of his Jiralhanae blood behind. He collided with the wall, just sitting there. Drektus could barely breathe with his windpipe utterly ruined, he could hardly feel his body with torn up nerves and he spine was a total wreck. He was unable to fight back.

Thel wasn't done yet. He scratched his plan to make the Brute go berserk. He was going to use plan B instead:

"Brute, I'm going to beat you to a bloody pulp, stay alive while I do this please, punching a dead Brute just isn't as fun as punching a live one" Thel deactivated his dagger and cracked both of his fists, preparing to beat some sense into him.

Drektus was tortured by the sight of Thel coming towards. He had nothing to defend himself with and the Arbiter is not going to stop just yet. A part of Drektus was actually asking for a quick death.

He stopped in front of the immobilized Jiralhanae, staring into the eyes of a dying Chieftain. In a swift move, Thel punched Drektus, his entire head was thrown aside. Thel punched him again, repeating the same head sway. Arbiter, who was supposed to be the most honourable out of the two, was making Drektus suffer as he repeated many punched, knocking out all of the Brute's teeth in just mere seconds.

Drektus was battered, beaten and bloodied. He could do nothing to stop the Arbiter's relentless assault, each hit felt like bricks smashing into his face. He was bruised almost all over his face. It was too much for even a Brute to handle. Thel kept on going and going AND going. Nothing was stopping Thel from absolutely making Drektus die a horrible, miserable death. Arbiter kept on going until he heard the voice of a damaged and wrecked Jiralhanae.

"Wait! (punch), stop! please! (sobs)" Thel stopped as he noticed a couple of tears come down from the Brute. Never in his life has a Brute done this.

"Please! I-I don't w-want to die! I (coughs) I have a family b-back on D-Doisac, our homeworld! You kill me, you kill the mate of a female and the father of 3 young ones!" Drektus pleaded to be spared, revealing what he has back on the Jiralhanae home planet.

Thel continued breathing heavily from his assault, lowering his arms. He was shocked that he was killing a Brute that was part of decent sized family, but this Brute and the rest of the Battle cruiser force destroyed the Shadow and killed many crew who had families back on Sangheilios. Thel growled, clenching his fists and activating his energy dagger.

"Brute, the elites that were a part of this great ship all had families! their children and their females will never see them again! They all died! All thanks to Shenko and the rest of your savage weapons! I should've died in the crash! I don't have a family, I don't female to go back to unlike the countless others who did! YOU'VE MADE YOUR CHOICE TO FIGHT ME! I'm afraid...the kids will never get to see daddy come home...EVER!" Thel raised his right arm to deliver the final slash, not caring about Drektus's family

"No, please! DO-" the dagger cut through his neck like nothing. The Brute gargled all his blood out of his mouth and the rest splurged out of his open shafts of his neck. Some of it even splattered on Thel's skin and armour, ignoring what got on him as he watched the Brute die.

"Burn in hell...like the rest of the Covenant!" Thel's dagger ran out of energy at that moment. He felt nothing. No emotion, no hatred, no remorse...no mercy. He stared at the corpse that he created by killing this one, single Jiralhanae. It was a mess that would never be cleaned up.

Thel a yellow data pad on Drektus's thigh, concerned that one piece of equipment held all the information to create Assault Carriers. Picking it from the corpse, Thel went through thousands of archives that held Carrier information, to create the cleansing beams, the hangers, the many reactors, the plasma batteries, everything to create a new fleet was stored on this hand held square piece of tech. It was dire for the Jiralhanae invasion force.

Thel then cycled through the pad for the delete button. He saw the word right there, written in Sangheili language, spelling 'Droukt'. He breathed in as he pressed it, wiping all the info from the thousands of archives. None of it remained. The pad was useless now with all the information gone. Arbiter just averted a cataclysmic disaster for his people. Sangheilios was now 100% safe and secure from the Jiralhanae. Their invasion plans had been foiled.

"There Rtas...its finally clear for our home. You may rest easy now" Thel dropped the pad and suddenly heard the hum of the lift. He turned to see 4 elites, including Tesk and Ventor, come to Thel's aid.

"Thel!...what happened here..." Ventor asked the Sangheili who punched him earlier.

Before Thel could reply, Shenko's screaming was heard as he was flying through. They turned to see him getting closer to the plasma reactor. All of a sudden, a giant dark convexity beam hit Shenko. It came from Dark Cynder.

"By the gods...is that...the dragoness?" Tesk was beyond any shock he ever had. Every Sangheili was surprised by this, except Thel, who whispered to himself.

"Finish him Cyn".

"CYYYYYYNNNNDDDDDEEEERRRRRR!" Shenko collided with the reactor, instantly disintegrating him. The power of the beam caused the whole reactor to blow. Now was the time to escape the ship before everything they've done here is lost.

"ELITES, GRAB SPYRO, JABJAB AND YAPFLOP AND TAKE THEM BACK TO THE DROPSHIP! NOW!" Thel pointed at them with the explosions happening right behind him.

Without argument, they went to pick up their fatally wounded companions while Thel ran to the darkness-receding Cynder, who dropped to floor.

Dropping on his knees right next to her, he lifted her head and started to gently caressed the markings on her forehead which was the most sweatiest area. As he stared into her emerald eyes before they closed, he spoke a few last words before she passed out.

"Cynder...we're almost out of this...stay with me".

**YES! FREAKING YES! I AM BACK EVERYONE FROM THE LAPTOP REPAIR, BY THE GODS, BY THE ANSCESTORS, HOLY ANGEL CRAP, AFTER WEEKS, I FINALLY GOT THIS UP! Also, I put in the missing chapter from early on back in the story, everything should be good now, the escape from the Shadow is finally coming! YAY! **


	38. A Cataclysmic ending to nobility

The ship was ripping itself apart, explosions happened every 3 seconds, the time to leave the Shadow behind for good was now! The elites were coming out of the lift that would soon deactivate, flying out and landing on the shaking floor. Tesk was carrying Yapflop in his arms, noticing the fatal damage to his armour and methane pack. He was desperate to get this little Grunt to the dropship.

"C'mon little Unggoy, just hang on, we can get you meds as soon as we board!" he tried to speak to him, but the explosions was blocking out his voice. Yapflop coughed up the methane in his small lungs. He was going to suffocate without it.

Ventor carried Spyro on his hunched back, holding the dragon's arms in front to keep a good grip. His front paws was just hanging against the sides of the captain's neck. The red armoured elite couldn't feel any breathing from the purple dragon. He also felt Spyro's blood from his abdomen trickle down the back of his armour, but he ignored it entirely. This was indeed a dire situation.

"Thel or the black creature is going to kill me if this one doesn't survive! ARGH! WHERE IS THAT BLOODY HANGER?" Ventor shouted, running alongside his comrades.

The blue elite that was right in front of the group was carrying Jabjab, the less injured of the wounded. Like Tesk, he was carrying the Grunt in his arms. This lower ranked Sangheili spotted the entry to the hanger, where came from. The door was damaged from an explosion, disabled, unable to move, but at least it was open.

"NOT FAR NOW, KEEP GOING! WE HAVE TO OFF THE SHADOW, OTHERWISE WE'RE ALL GOING TO END UP DEAD!" Ventor yelled at the very pinpoint of his lungs, almost feeling that his voice could've been lost.

These moments were of desperation, all the elites desired to get off the ship that was tearing itself apart, explosion by explosion, falling metal bars by collapsing plasma batteries. Everything was going to be lost in this ship, it would all be disintegrated. The Shadow of Intent's destruction is an explosion that will be 50 times the size of a nuclear mushroom cloud and a thousand times more destructive than a nuclear explosion at that. The weapons, the vehicles, the architecture, the beauty...the memories, all will be lost at any given minute now. The reactor explosions were dangerously getting closer to main ship reactor. Time was of the essence!

The other elites aboard the dropship activated the grav lift, watching as their brothers and allies, as well as their fatally and life threatened companions, were just mere metres away. The minor classed ranked elites boarded first, finally getting Jabjab onto it. They rested him against the back of the transport bay, making sure he got comfortable.

Tesk was the next to board the Brute captured Phantom, just as he got tired of running and he placed Yapflop right next to Jabjab. Both Grunts were still either unconscious or almost dead. Jabjab's armour damage is significant, but his wounds were not life threatening, so he should've been fine for the return journey, but not Yapflop. Yapflop's injuries needed to be treated right away, or risk losing him for eternity. The methane pack was undeniably ruined and all his methane will soon be gone.

"Someone put pressure on his back! don't let him lose all his breathing gas!" Tesk told the other 3 Sangheili, who were just standing around doing nothing. One of them grabbed the med kit to treat his burns from the flame grenade earlier, whist the other 2 listened to Tesk and tried to stop methane from leaking out, but it will still be just a lost cause.

Ventor then came out of the grav lift, panting heavily and gently placing Spyro on the smooth cargo floor. He got the purple dragon to lay on his back to have a look at the energy dagger wound. It was an absolute abomination of a sight, way too much blood just kept on coming out. Ignoring all the Dragon blood that will drench them, Odesa placed his hand and what's left of his other hand to stop the blood.

"C'mon purple dragon, now's NOT the time to become a lifeless corpse!" Ventor growled trying to do everything in his power to keep Spyro alive. He could've been in shock, or worse...

Ventor jerked his head to the right so suddenly at the hanger door, watching Arbiter run out of the long corridor with the power drained Cynder in his arms, using the last of his strength to get her on board. Ventor's eyes widened immediately at the sight.

"C'MON THEL! HURRY!" he yelled out to the Arbiter, watching a violent, bluish explosion aflame the area behind Vadam.

Thel started to think, giving himself one simple objective.

"Cynder's safety comes first, then mine! I hope she lands in it!".

Arbiter was thinking of throwing the dragoness into the Phantom, to make sure she was aboard and ready to go. After all, he made it his duty protect the dragoness ever since he made that commitment, to her in person, a few days ago. This was a chance to prove just that. Breathing in all the air he could muster, with such a damaged chest structure from his fight, he called out to the elites about the incoming package.

"SANGHEILI, CATCH HER!" Thel threw the dragoness at the dropship, alerting them about her unexpected arrival.

Tesk turned around and saw the dragoness coming in. Desperate to grab her, Raskar stood up and caught her, making him fall on his backside, but Cynder was finally secured and prepped to leave the Shadow. Thel smiled happily that she was aboard now, but suddenly, an explosion blew through the floor right behind Arby, sending him flying just above the floor and sliding across it. The Arbiter actually yelped from this unexpected surprise.

He stopped sliding, almost blacked out from the powerful blast. He grunted, pushing himself slowly back on his knees, struggling and desperately trying to get up. He heard Tesk's faint shouting through his temporarily deafened hearing.

"HURRY ARBITER! WE CAN'T LEAVE YOU BEHIND! GET UP, GET UP" Tesk cried out as he laid the dragoness on the dropship's smooth floor.

Thel just realised the ship was still blowing up, shaking off the blast. He stood up and ran to the Phantom, with a dreadful pain in his chest and extremely tired legs. The explosions were catching up to him, just trailing his running. All the Sangheili saw the blue blasts coming towards them all. Arbiter jumped into the grav lift, entering the cargo and running up to the pilot's seat.

He deactivated the grav lift and closed the side doors, pressing multiple switches to ignite the engines. His heavy panting, broken up chest and the speed of how he was activating the engines just shown how desperate he was to get everybody off the Shadow. When the small core of the ship finally gave Arbiter the green light, the time to leave was now.

"HANG ON, THIS IS GOING TO BE CLOSE!" Arbiter shouted out to them, signalling them brace for the detonation,

With the entire plasma reactor explosion right behind it, the Phantom sped with all its might and flew out of the hanger, with the enormous destruction coming out just a second after it. Thel made a sharp right and ascended high in the sky, above the Shadow's wreck. The Phantom flew as far away as it could to escape the blast radius. Meanwhile, the Battle cruiser saw the Assault Carrier just below, but Magnaruckus and his Brutes noticed small blue dots coming out of it.

The highly ranked Jiralhanae, including Mag and Jikartus, noticed it and wondered what was wrong with their nemesis's ship. There was talk amongst them, unable to identify what was happening down there.

"What's wrong with that wretched Sangheili ship! Why hasn't Drektus and Shenko reported in yet?" Mag was impatient. He wanted that Carrier information right now. A Brute on a console nearby zoomed in on the ship, noticing the explosions that came from the interior of the ship.

"My pack master...the ship...its blowing up from the inside..." The Stalker turned to his masters. Magnaruckus instantly widened his eyes.

"Blowing up from the inside? that means...WRETCHED FREAKS! EVERYONE BRACE FOR A BLAST WAVE!" he grabbed onto the console in front of him and held tightly. Everyone else just threw themselves on the ground and braced the inevitable.

At that moment...a giant, blue, shiny sphere engulfed the Shadow instantly, slowly swallowing the beautiful land around it, accompanied by the loudest noise that could be heard from hundreds and thousands of miles away, a noise that could be heard all over the planet. The blue sphere of destruction continued expanding, sending a blast wave to blow away absolutely everything, like a giant hurricane of absolute terror, annihilating everything in its path. The trees were torn from the trunks and sent flying for miles on end, the grass was ripped from the dirt, even the Brute cruiser was slowly being pushed away from where the Shadow used to be. The entire anomaly was a cataclysmic disaster.

All the Brutes roared, yelled and screamed as the Cruiser started listing its entire mass to the starboard side, with the Seraphs slipping out of hangers, with nothing to stop them falling out. Some Jiralhanae were even trying to grab onto something stable, but those who couldn't suffered a fall to the ground, eventually causing their deaths. The Scarab was also getting dangerously close to going with those Brutes, but the thin, spiked legs kept it on the ship. Seraphs and Brutes fell through the air, with the Cruiser almost about to touch the ground, about to drag along the skinned forest.

On the dropship, they barely escaped the shiny sphere, almost becoming disintegrated. If that wasn't going to kill them, the incredible amount of turbulence and shaking will cause them to crash. The Sangheili kept the wounded in the corner, to keep them stable. What they were experiencing was something no one ever wants to go through, not even for these brave warriors.

"I DON'T HAVE CONTROL OF THE DROPSHIP! C'MON, DON'T GO OUT ON US RIGHT NOW!" Arbiter shouted at the pinpoint of his voice, but the explosion was so loud, the other elites couldn't hear him.

The weapons and equipment were locked against the wall nearest to the cockpit, so they weren't going anywhere. Outside, the Ghost and the Spectre were quite stable, hanging onto the holders that projected under the dropship, but if this Phantom goes down, so does everything else aboard, and all the searching would've been a total waste.

"STOP IT! STOP IT NOW! I HATE IT!" Tesk begged for all this shaking to end now, but the sphere was still expanding, reaching 30 kilometres wide.

The destruction was so tense, even the rising morning sun was blocked out, enshrouding the entire area of a blue darkness. The explosion could even be seen from Warfang, almost everyone was at the wall, holding onto something as the wave was laying down on them all. Darst, Hunter, Terrador, Prowlus, Meadow, Cyril, Volteer, the 2 Lekgolos, and Sparx who holding onto one of the spines of the bigger Lekgolo, and everyone else covered themselves from the wave, while also looking the giant sphere.

"BY THE UNIVERSE! WHAT ON THIS PLANET COULD CAUSE THIS KIND OF CHAOS?" Darst was shielding himself from the dust and the wave, holding his right arm up and making sure none of it got in his eyes.

"WHATEVER IT IS, IT COULD NEVER HAVE BEEN CAUSED BY ANYTHING WE HAVE HERE ON OUR WORLD!" Terrador shouted out.

"THIIIIIIIIIIIIIIISSSSS IIIIIIIIIIIIIIISSSSSS WAAAAAAAAAAAYYYY TOOOOOOOO MUUUUUCCCCCCHHHH WIIIIIIIIIND! WHAAAAAA!" Sparx lost his grip on the spine and was blown away, crashing into a stone wall just near the thousands of crowds. He was almost knocked out, but he stayed with the smart decision and just his position on the wall he landed on.

"Ow...jeez, when Spyro and Cynder gets back, they're gonna pay for leaving me here...THEY ALWAYS LEAVE ME NOW! HAS ANYONE ELSE NOTICED THAT?".

The explosion could be seen from orbit, spotting a small, blue light. From this area, it didn't look like much, but it certainly started changing the landscape around the destruction. In those forests, Grublin homes were eradicated as the trees were blown away, some of them were even sent flying through the air, screaming their freaky heads off. Lakes that were nearby created tidal waves that were hit by the blast, flooding areas and habitats, destroying the wildlife around it. Even the cliff that Cynder used sit on was destroyed.

The Battlecruiser skidded along the ground, just getting back into its position the whole thing was on its side, but mass scrapped its paintjob off, heading straight for a mountain. With nothing to stop it, the Prophet's vengeance smashed its starboard side against the rocky, spiky mountain, destroying so much of its design and pride. It was unclear of what was going on inside of the ship, but the Brutes were not going to clean this mess up. Not in a hundred years.

The sphere finally started to extinguish, to almost everyone who survived it, this was the biggest relief in a long time. The blast wave's force died down, with the sun breaching through the smoke and dust once more. The clear skies slowly returned to normal after such a life traumatizing event. No one would ever forget an explosion like that. The Shadow of Intent...was not there anymore. No sign of it remained, not piece of metal, weapons, not high tech piece of equipment, nothing. The glorious, beautiful, incredible Assault Carrier...was nothing but a memory. Rtas and the crew's mutilated remains were also obliterated, the destroyed vehicles in the hangers, the pathways Arbiter and Cynder took to find the bridge and the elites was lost. Shenko and Drektus were eradicated from existence. Was it all worth it?

Onboard the Phantom, which now flew smoothly through the clear skies, Arbiter two hearts were beating so fast, his chest could be seen going up and down very clearly. The shaking caused him to hit parts of the pilot seat, and now he was bleeding in small parts of his armour, showing dark purple stains on his armour and face. Ventor was faced down on the cargo bay floor, but he looked up and noticed that they were still in the air. He observed the area around him to see the Locust power core, the weapons and equipment were still in decent shape. No damage was done to them. Cynder, Spyro, Yapflop and Jabjab were still laying at the back, but they all had to get back to Warfang for medical treatment, or risk losing them forever.

Asking about the vehicles later, Odesa jumped up and got to Thel's cockpit. The captain noticed Vadam was in a very bad state, the Sangheili Arbiter needed to rest right now.

"Thel! THEL!...your bleeding..." he placed his right hand on Arbiter's left shoulder.

"I know...I...I'll live..." Thel just wanted to get back to Warfang now, still in control of dropship, but his hands were shaking.

"Thel, it does have an auto pilot...please, for the sake of your life, sit in the cargo bay and rest, I'll make sure we get there safely" Odesa pressed a holo button, making the Phantom control itself from here on.

"No...I need to...I need to get Cynder and...and Spyro...and the Grunts...to the infirmary...(coughs) to the city!" Thel was being pulled from the seat and was supported by the veteran Sangheili, escorting him to the bay.

"Thel, the Shadow is gone...it's gone from reality. Everything we had on that Carrier, everything that reminded us about Sangehilios...all of it has been lost my friend. Nothing of it remains right now" Ventor sat him next to Cynder. Thel's eyes widened, remembering the time he was aboard the Shadow. Rtas, the crew, the surroundings...disintegrated into absolutely nothing.

Thel wrapped his arms around his legs, almost creating a fetal position like an unborn baby. He doesn't know what just happened was a good thing or a disastrous consequence that he would live to regret. There is no way to get off this planet now. They were all stranded for good. The only thing that will them alive is the city, in which, the next morning, the Brutes attack, if there is still any left that survived the crash.

Tesk and the other Sangheili looked, relieved they were still among the living. They all noticed Thel crouched up in the corner next to Cyn, with Ventor looking down upon him

"G-gone...oh by the rings...Ventor...what if there were any more survivors, survivors that we missed? th-they would be dead! all because of us!" Thel covered his face miserably, it was unknown if there were more survivors of the crash besides these elites.

"Arbiter, just pretend there was only us that survived".

"There was more, wasn't there? more of our crew! more of our brothers, who died in a horrible explosion!" Vadam stood up angrily.

"If there was...at least they didn't suffer. They didn't die by Jiralhanae hands. They wouldn't have wanted that...would you?" Ventor's face revealed a much lighter side to him. He wasn't as patriotic as Thel though he was. That still cheer him up.

"I almost got killed by one of them Odesa. And...and he had a family back on Doisac, the Jiralhanae home world. I killed a father of 3 children, a beloved mate for a female. Does that make me a cold blooded killer like Magnaruckus?" a tear dropped from Thel's left eye, sliding down onto his mandible armour, that was covered in his blood.

"Of course it doesn't, that Brute thought of killing us first and his family second. If It were up to me, I would've stayed with my family of younglings, raise them to make them perfect warriors. If I had one, but I didn't, which is why I joined the Covenant".

"What about the Carrier crew? some of them had families and yet they still joined the lies of the Prophets".

Ventor sighed deeply, "I guess fanaticism and zealousness just got to them. Growing up without a father is hard, I feel sorry for the young warriors back on Sangehilios".

Thel looked at the dragons, "Can't say the same for Spyro and Cynder...they never knew both their parents. They were killed before they ever got to see their little hatchlings...Instead they were both dragged into a bloodshed of violence and war, made to fight and fight and fight! It's unbelievable that two fights were going on at the same time" Thel still couldn't get over what Cynder, Spyro and Terrador told him about their war against the Dark master. It's like war is a common thing now, and battles are just small parts of it. Ventor slowly started to share pity for them.

Thel noticed the blood was still coming out of Spyro, nothing has been done with it. Thel got over to him and pulled him to the centre of the bay, as well as Yapflop, so he and the other Sangheili could off death until they got back to the city.

"Ventor, for our bloody sake, get me the kit, share the supplies for the grunt as well! Tesk, you and the others just help as much as you can with Yapflop, we need to hold off their demise for as long as we can" Thel demanded the minor ranked Elites, and with no argument, they grabbed bandages and syringes to help Yapflop with. Ventor still just stood behind Thel, knowing there was no way to save Spyro from a wound like this one.

"Arbiter, he was impaled in the abdomen by an energy dagger! a Human could not live through that, what makes you think a dragon can?" Ventor didn't have any faith in Thel's objective to save the purple dragon.

"Ventor, this is the reason why I punched you before I left the dropship to save them! I'm not going to tell Cynder when she wakes up that the savior of this world and her future mate has died by a simple impale from an ENERGY DAGGER! GET OVER HERE AND HELP! NO ARGUEMENT CAPTAIN! THAT'S A DEMAND FROM YOUR SUPERIOR!" Thel placed a dark blue cloth like material to keep pressure on Spyro's wound, soaking up the blood, but sooner or later, he will die by blood loss. Ventor moaned but he did as he was told and kneeled across from Thel on the other side of Spyro.

He helped by pulling a syringe from the kit, grabbing a small vial containing a green fluid and injected it into Spyro's neck. It spread into his body, calming him down and stopping the trembles the purple dragon was having.

"There, that should stop him from going into shock, it will keep him calm until we get there" Ventor explained the liquid's task. Thel looked at the brave dragon, hoping that they could save him, but a small part told Thel that he wasn't going to make it. He wasn't going to give up, he wouldn't until this dragon was back up and healthy once again, or this will stain on Vadam's mind forever.

Spyro opened his mouth for moment to let a mild groan out, at least confirming that he was still alive. This relieved the Arbiter, but it wasn't going to help with the wound Shenko has created. He growled remembering what that traitor said, never in Sangheili history has any elite done that. Thel made sure that once he gets back to Sangehilios, he will make sure that the traitor's name goes down as one of the worst war criminals in their line of history, it will not only dishonour the Special Operations rank, but it will also disgrace the Shenko family line. For betraying his own race, for fatally wounding Spyro and Yapflop, for hurting Jabjab, for attacking Cynder, for telling the Brutes the location and course of the Shadow, the bastard deserved every bit of it, maybe even more.

"Shenko...he betrayed us all! he caused all of this! the crash! the Brutes finding us! for trying to kill the Grunts and Spyro! for attacking and spitting on Cynder's life! Rargh! If he was still here, I rip his arms off and feast him to the Flood!" Thel let go of the cloth and clenched, still enraged by his betrayal.

Ventor, Tesk and everyone else stared at him, stunned that they just heard those words. One of their own kind? betraying them and allying with the Jiralhanae? It didn't seem possible for something like this to occur.

Meanwhile, at the wreck of the Prophet's vengeance, a giant, body wrecking hand covered in blood grabbed the console in front, pulling himself up, Magnaruckus inspected the damage. Everywhere he looked, he saw Jiralhanae getting up everywhere. A couple were even dead, and the captains and jet pack Brutes were cleaning them up, finding ways to dispose of the bodies. Jikartus stood up, stumbling for a bit and turn to stare at his boss, who was just freaked that the Battlecruiser has crashed.

"GARGH! MY SHIP! MY BEAUTIFUL SHIP! DESTROYED BY THE FORCES OF THE BLAST WAVE! BY THE PROPHETS, BY THE RINGS, BY THE HOLY CORPSE OF TARTARUS! HOW COULD A CARRIER EXPLODE INTO SOMETHING LIKE THAT, WHAT KIND OF FORCE WOULD BE NEEDED TO CREATE AN EXPLOSION LIKE THAT!" Mag's eyes were as wide as gumballs, exposing the huge skin tearing teeth. Jikartus afraid the moment he shouted, having no way to explain what happened. He needed one quickly, or end up like the Brute that got his ripped off by the Chieftain back when the encampment was up.

"M-M-Maybe it was the plasma reactor! it's the only piece of equipment that's able to start a chain reaction to create an explosion of that size!" he trembled before the giant Brute, even falling onto his bottom when Mag yelled again.

"BUT A MANUAL DETONATION WOULD NOT BE ENOUGH! NO WEAPON IN OUR ARSRENAL, NOT EVEN A SCARAB OR ANOTHER CARRIER, COULD NOT DO THAT CRAP! THERE IS NOTHING IN THIS GALAXY THAT COULD DO THAT!" he pointed out the smoke that could be seen from miles. The next reply from Jikartus will be enough enrage him for the whole day.

"The purple and black freak flyers could, you remember their powers, you know from the encampment and...the...meadows...".

Magnaruckus was about to break a blood vessel in his eyes left eye.

"Did...we...get...the...Carrier..info?" he tilted his head, as blood slowly leaked out of his nose.

"Drektus and Shenko...didn't...send it" Jikartus replied with a light voice. His eyes turned scared and helpless when the Chieftain's muscles tensed up, he took up a ton of breath, still having clenched fists, and let out a deafening noise.

"BLAAAAAASSSTTT YOOOOOOOU FREEEEEEAAAAK FLLLLYYYYERSSSSS, BLAAAAST YOOOOOU ARRRBBIIITTTER, CUUUURRSSEEE ALLLLL YOOOUUU SAAANGGHEILLLI!".

**Magnaruckus really needs to attend anger management class, don't he? maybe a bit of yoga as well and maybe attend MORE ANGER MANAGEMENT CLASS...well, invasion plans foiled, the Shadow is gone for good and the Battlecruiser is out of the fight. Thel and the other elites still need to get back to the city before things turn really sour because well, you know that spoiler I mentioned back in chapter 35? well that could ripe for change...oh dear.**

**Anyway's, you might be pleasantly surprised about what happens in number 38, or you can somehow tell the future, in which you do, you might as well just stop reading this story, lol, have a great day friends and fans!**


	39. Spartans never die

"Demon, welcome to the state of Vadam!" the Commander introduced the Master Chief to the area upon which they walked on.

It was a fairly large area, consisting of its own desert, harbor, keep, valley and mountain, all of which are named after Thel's last name, except for Kolaar mountain. The keep used to be a prison, which was where the land's founder was captured, but now it was the city centre of political interest, where it's clan leaders interact with other clans across Sangehilios, creating a thriving empire consisting of their military and fleets. The city of Vadam, also connecting to the harbor, was smaller than Warfang but was completely filled of Sangheili inhabitants, both male and females, as well as young elites, training to be warriors, while others are to be trained with equipment. Multiple stone, as well as some metal buildings surround the capital, creating the city it is right now.

The weather wasn't bad, almost closely resembles Earth's, but it was a bit more hot and humid here, thanks to the fact that the planet was close to three stars, two of them which are much further away, Urs and Joori than the one closer to Sangehilios, Fied. The gravity was also a little heavier than what was on Earth or any of the Halo rings, but the chief barely felt it. His armour was not that scratched during the Forward unto Dawn's crash. Not much has changed ever since his time on the Ark. Just to make sure the elites didn't try anything, he kept Cortana in his head.

They both were accompanied by the ultra that was part of the recovery team, which were still uncovering the rest of the ship. The Commander, Tukartel Skerily, was leading them through the city, explaining to the chief what has happened during his time in cryo sleep. What started to creep the chief the most is that the Sangheili citizens were watching him go by.

"Demon, you have no idea how special you are to stand on our grounds, the Sangheili/Human alliance has become stronger than ever, we've even started talking about the routes we can use to trade technology and resources to rebuild our planets and colonies, the war has left a huge hole in our way of life" Tukartel observed the city, awed by their creation. Chief even had a look himself, fascinated to be on another planet that is dominated by another inter-galactic race. Cortana though, was the most amazed.

"The architecture, the history, its written all over these buildings, all created by the creatures we have been fighting against for how many decades. I could learn so much about the elites from just the dust!" she excitedly commented on the city, almost as awed as she was on the first Halo ring.

"But Eli- I mean...Commander, what about the Flood and the Covenant, has there been any sign of them ever since the destruction of the Ark and the Portal?" the Chief turned to Tukartel, walking a metre behind the larger than average Sangheili.

"It has been a fortunate time Spartan, there has no traces of the Flood since then, and no large Covenant fleet has been seen at all/ I think the Jackals and the Drones just went scurrying back to their own worlds, good riddance, reckless idiots. As for the parasite, not one infection form has come up at all, though from my past battles with the Flood, it always feels like they're scurrying around somewhere. Still, nothing to be so worked up about" the ultra, Skorn Vtran, explained to the green armoured super soldier, grabbing his attention.

"And the Brutes?" Cortana talked to the elites through their channels. A low growl left Tukartel's mandibles.

"Ever since their defeat at the Ark, the remnants of their fleet has scattered. Some may have gone back to their homeworld but who knows what those savages have in their arsenal, we still have a much superior fleet to them, at least 100 times what they've got, but we've searched most of the galaxy...the parts we know anyway" Skorn was just a tad smaller than Tukartel's size, but he was still around Darst's height. He walked along right next to the chief.

"...Not only that, even more trouble has come up in the past few days...an Assault Carrier was on its way home, which was here" Tukartel stopped and turned, standing before the Chief in front of the keep's entrance, which were large metal doors shaped like an arch.

"So, that sounds like a good thing" Cortana spoke politely.

"...Only, it never came back".

"Oh". Chief now remembered that this was the Sangheili homeworld, which led him to one important question.

"Where's the Arbiter?" his voice sounded more firm this time. The Commander lowered his head and shook it.

"That's just it Demon...we don't know. His Carrier, Shadow of Intent, I suppose you know that ship, was on its way back from Earth with the rest of the Sangheili that survived and went through the Portal and came back. We...we lost their signal a few days ago, when they entered uncharted space. We had them, then they suddenly disappear. I don't know why they couldn't just use the slip space drive to get back here, that's much quicker!" he shrugged his shoulders, just as confused as John.

"He...vanished?" the chief was shocked by this. What ever happened to his greatest Sangheili ally?

"He, Rtas, everyone aboard that ship, gone, completely off the galactic map. They left no trace, no signs, no distress beacons nor calls! And everyone on this planet thinks the Jiralhanae are behind this, there is no other explanation for it. If it was the Flood, we would've already detected the infestation by now, but it's zip" Skorn cut in.

"And that's why we need you Demon. You're the first Human to set foot upon the planet, and right now, we are in need of your skills. We are amassing a large fleet to venture into that uncharted space to investigate what happened and Thel Vadam and his crew" Tukartel jerked around and waved his hand, signalling the Sangheili inside to open the door, as it could only be opened from the inside.

"Thel Vadam? that's Arbiter's real name?" the Chief asked.

"It is, and as of right now, it's imperative that we find him, he's the key in our alliance with your race, without him, the other leaders in other states will think Humans are behind this and will cut everything off from them and attack Earth. Although your race is strong, I highly doubt they can ever resist the power of 5 Super Carriers glassing your world" Tukartel entered the keep, followed close behind by John and Skorn.

"Wait, Commander, why does Sangehilios think Humans are the cause, why not the Brutes?" Skorn was now perplexed.

"The states of Vadam, Moram, Vadum, Losona and Chavam all believe that the Brutes are behind this and vote not to attack the Humans, but the idiot leaders of the other states believe that Humans are the real problem, since there hasn't been any fleet movement from the vile beasts. Since we fought them before the Great Schism, it's easier just to blame them!" the Commander sounded quite irritated by this fact, even anger was dwelling inside him, showing it on his enraged face.

"So when does the Arbiter come into all this political stuff?" the lady in blue asked.

"Out of the billions of our kind, Thel is the only elite that has a closer interest in Humanity, not only that, he's the one that has trusted them the most, we know because of the actions with you Spartan, that's why he needs to come back...alive" Skorn crossed his arms as they all entered an elevator, exiting the hall.

They ended up at the pinpoint of the keep, the briefing/communications room, where the fleets that are controlled by Vadam are commanded through, as well as the military. It was a well lit place with large windows looking to the rest of the state, with a holo table in the centre and a giant TV looking device placed on the wall next the windows.

"Alive?" Chief looked at Skorn as they came out from the doors of the elevator. The Commander leaned his forward against the table, worried, tired.

"(Sigh) if the Arbiter is dead, here's how things go; if we find any evidence that the Brutes actually killed him, then all invasion plans and operations against Humanity are called off and the alliance continues. On the other side though, if we can't find any evidence of Jiralhanae activity there and he is dead, then well...Humans will soon become extinct in the next 2 or 3 weeks".

Chief shook his head, knowing that Thel has to be brought back to Sangehilios now, or Earth will pay the price. Time was of the essence and having no other choice, the Master Chief has to join the Sangheili's search for the Shadow of Intent's last known location, find out what happened and eliminate anything that's hostile towards the fleet. If there's Brutes, they are instantly hostile, but anything else must be identified as friendly or foe. They ain't going to destroy anything until Thel has been found.

"Sir, I think It's time to inform the fleet's incoming guest" Skorn walked right next to Skerily, placing a left on his right shoulder. The elite Commander exhaled in and stood tall, nodding to his second in command.

"Indeed it is, we should also contact Drent Vadam, he deserves to know the search for his son will begin in a few minutes" Tukartel walked towards the screen of the communications TV, leaving Skorn to cross his arms and watch as the conversation between the fleet and Thel's father unfolds.

It didn't take long for the 3 other elites in the room, wearing violet armour, to calibrate the connections between them all. On the screen appeared Drent Vadam, a very large elite wearing steel coloured Councillor armour, wearing a large crown like helmet. He was sitting in a large, stone made chair fit for a leader like himself, having armrests for more comfort. Not only was he large, but from looks of his battle scars on his arms and face, he is also a veteran of many battles.

Next to him was a female Sangheili, smaller than Drent but wore white, shiny Councillor armour, sitting in the exact same sized seat like Vadam. Her body structure wasn't as bulky as most Sangheili males are, having a thin like body structure to describe her gender from the males, as a way to pick which one they were, like most of the species around the galaxy. Appearing on the screen next to them was an elite in silver armour, standing behind him was 2 Zealot class warriors. This was the second in command of the fleet. He was sitting are purplish hover chair like what the Shadow used to have.

"My emperor, empress and fleet second in command, I have a special guest from the planet Earth, one we thought to be deceased. I present to you the Demon of Humanity, or Spartan, whatever you may call him" Tukartel moved out of the screen to show the chief, who walked closer to the screen.

"Spartan, it is an honour to have you on our planet, in our great state! Vadam welcomes you with open arms" Drent smiled, quite exhilarated to have the human hero of the Ark here in his state.

"It's an...honour to be here emperor" the chief bowed, out of respect.

"At ease Spartan, no need for that" the large leader raised his hand, telling the chief that it's not even needed here.

"By the god's! I thought he was dead!" the fleet second in command brought his face closer to the screen, bewildered that John was still among the living.

"We all did Shisk, but now is not the time for introductions. Leaders of Vadam, the fleet will depart Sangehilios as soon I, Skorn and the Spartan are onboard the 'Resident of Darkness'. I assure you, we will do everything within our power to find Thel Vadam, he may not only be your son, but he's the key to our alliance with Humans and the only thing that's keeping us from doing the wrong thing" Tukartel placed his right fist on his chest, exposing his honour towards his leaders.

"I'm afraid Commander, that is not the case anymore..." Drent lowered his head, shattered that something recent has come up.

"Wh-what do you mean sire?" the commander suddenly became confused, with Skorn uncrossing his arms in concern. Chief wanted to know what's going on, what has changed?

"What he means Commander, is that the other states are not waiting any longer for our son to return. The ones who think the Humans are the cause are already amassing a combined fleet from around the galaxy to initiate a planetary invasion to attack Earth with! In 3 days, that fleet will everyone on the planet, whether Thel has been returned to Sangehilios or not! You now have limited time. I and the other empresses from the other states have tried our best, but nothing solid came out" Sinskest Vadam explained the reason of change and this struck everyone in the chest.

"This...this is unacceptable! when was this called?" Skorn started to get involved, angered by this recent act.

"An hour ago, when I got back to the keep ultra...I'm sorry elites, I truly am" Sinskest sounded like she tried every political conclusion to this, but it wasn't enough and now, she felt powerless, saddened that she couldn't avert this.

"There, there Sinskest, it's not your fault" Drent grabbed both of her hands, holding them as they both rested each other's heads affectionately.

"Don't worry empress, we shall get the Arbiter back and end these pointless plans against Humanity, we shall not go to war against them, and also make sure we expose the Brutes for doing this" Tukartel clenched his right fist that he held up, giving some hope to the Sangheili clan leaders.

"Of course. Commander, I've sent a Phantom to come pick you, the Spartan and the ultra up. As soon as you get onboard, our departure to the uncharted territory will commence. A Super Carrier and 3 Assault Carriers with aid from many Battlecruisers are ready for anything, but we have run into a problem..." the second in command jumped from his seat and pointed the camera at the holo table at his area.

"What problem?" the Chief asked.

"We can only slip space in charted areas, Earth and the other planets that we visited during the Covenant war for example, but the area where the Shadow of Intent vanished is an area we will not be able to slip space to, otherwise, if we did, we might end up at a different part of the galaxy, or worse, dark space! I'd rather not see the remains of the Ark sir" a map of the galaxy was shown up, and a target locator pointed at where the ship disappeared, which was covered in darkness.

"So, it's only a day away, we'll get there the old fashioned way, cruising through space" Cortana said on the Sangheili channels. Drent and Sinskest looked around to find out where that voice came from, even the silver armoured elite was suddenly frightened by it.

"Who just spoke then?" Drent asked.

"Cortana did, remember the AI you were after during the war? in here" John knocked on his helmet, pointing where she was.

"Hmm, I see. Alright then, your Phantom should be arriving soon Commander, the fleet is hovering above the city even as we speak. Good luck, may honour guide you to find Thel and anyone else that is a part of the Shadow. Emperor out" the screen suddenly turned static, as well as the second in command's screen. Tukartel turned to Skorn and the Chief.

"Well, let's not waste anymore time, I can see the Phantom coming down from my ship, let's go and bring back our brothers" he looked out the window, noticing a purple Phantom dropship coming down.

The Sangheili and Spartan nodded and followed the yellow armoured Commander out of the room by using the lift. The dropship was outside the entrance, awaiting for the three to come onboard. The metal arch doors opened and out they came, ready to get on the dropship. After entering the grav lift, the dropship ascended from the city and went into flight mode, flying through the sky and entering the huge hanger of an Assault Carrier, the Resident of Darkness.

Everything was now good to go. The 15 Battlecruisers followed the 3 Assault Carriers that led whole fleet, followed but also dwarfed by the massive 27 kilometre Super Carrier, the 'Legion of Desperate Desolation'. The huge fleet left the atmosphere of Sangehilios and her orbit. Arbiter, Cynder and everyone else on the Dragon's Earth that are threatened by Magnaruckus and his Jiralhanae, help was on the way.

**Master Chiiiiieeeefffff! will he, Skorn and the Commander get to them in time? or will Magnaruckus actually be eating Sangheili heart and liver with a side of dragon wings for dinner? I told you all, no more spoilers...and if you're wondering why this is 37 instead of chap 38, the site actually made a copy of chapter 5 and make that number 6, hence forth, 38 chapters. If there is any more problem regarding a missing chapter or a copy of one, PM me STAT! ain't having another problem like that again. Oh, and no reviews from last one? =( maybe this one will get me 1 or 2...maybe more, that'd be sweet! have a fan-freaking-tastic day**


	40. Cyborg unleashed

The Prophet's vengeance was ruined. The whole ship was grounded, with the shine of the ship completely eradicated by scratches, dents and a huge breach in the starboard side by the mountain, impaling, breaking and wrecking the entire side wing. It was all scrap metal. Some Brutes may have been killed during the crash, as well as most of their Seraphs that slipped out of the two hangers that were in both sides of the mighty cruiser. With only one whole hanger now, their air superiority has dwindled down so much, Banshees were the only main air force, and all of them are with the main Jiralhanae ground forces. The smoke floated through most of the area above the ship, make it hard to even see the Battlecruiser from a bird's eye view.

What was very vital for the Jiralhanae to win the battle against the Sangheili/Dragon resistance force was their glassing port, which now lays on the bottom of the heap, unable to do anything. As Brutes started to clean everything up, Magnaruckus was still have the biggest raging fit in his life, furious that all his plans have gone from bad to back to the drawing board status.

"RARGH! THE INVASION OF SANGEHILIOS, THE GLASSING OF THAT CITY, THE COMPLETE AND TOTAL EXTINCTION OF THE FREAK FLYERS AND THE WRETCHED SANGHEILI! ANNIHILATED, ABSOLUTELY ANNIHILATED! ARGH! I'LL NEVER LET THIS DOWN!" the Chieftain sobbed on the damaged navigation devices as everything he hoped for faded away, the elite homeworld can never be attacked now. Jikartus stood behind his master, waiting for this humiliating cry of anger to end.

"Why didn't Drektus just send as soon as he got the data! We have the resources for the prophet's sake! Grr! if he was still alive and onboard this ship, I would rip his heart and murder his family! Relationships always get in the way of war!" he smacked his fists against the devices, destroying them which caused sparks to fly everywhere. He turned to the War Chieftain with his always furious look, the exposed teeth and the spine tingling eyes.

"But sire, you had your own family back on Doisac, remember?" Jikartus reminded him.

"Yes, but as soon as the Prophets opened my eyes, I knew my rightful place in the pack! I killed them because they ignored the good will of the Covenant, her and those 4 heretic children! They were dirty and unclean!" he passed right by the brown armoured Jiralhanae, a little shocked that his leader actually murdered his own family, all for just serving the Covenant?

"Tell me those are lies Magnaruckus, you killed them?" the shock was inside Jikartus's voice.

"Indeed I did, I chose to fulfil my destiny in the Covenant and await for the day that we, as a species, destroy those 4 mandibled runts that call themselves elites! I made the right choice, Jikartus, and not one bit I regret of it" Magnaruckus went to his personal console, typing on the holo keys to inspect the damage to the ship. Jikartus shook his head, worried that Magnaruckus has gone mad with power.

"But enough of family ties, we need to find a way to get this Battlecruiser back up and functioning again. Now, are you sure Drektus and the defector Shenko didn't send the data?" he looked back at his second in command.

"Positive master".

"Well then, this complicates absolutely everything, doesn't it? What about the Sangheili defector, did he survive?" Mag walked away from his console, passing Jikartus to grab the Fist of Rukt, which was laying on a dead Brute.

"We lost his vital signs, he's believed to be dead".

"Hmph, oh well, I was going to execute him as soon as he got back here anyway, but Thel has done that for me...saves me the trouble" he rested the giant hammer on his back and confronted his second in command face to face. Jikartus looked down on the ground, quite shocked by that sentence.

"Forget about him now, he gave us an advantage over the Arbiter and the rest of those fools and we're going to use it, tomorrow is the day when we destroy them all and I am anxious to see the black freak flyer and Thel's demise personally. As long as they are alive, they stay on my list of top heretics, come, we might as well see how our new Sangheili defector is acclimatising to his new personality" he invited Jikartus to come see the status of Shin's cybernetic half form, hoping that it is still well preserved, even after the crash.

The brownish-bronze war chieftain nodded and followed his leader to the medical labs where Tarscar is held. Passing his chair and console, coming out of the bridge and letting the Jiralhanae to clean up, Magnaruckus stomped his way down the corridor with clenched fists, observing the damage and dead Brutes as he and Jikartus walked by and he somewhat didn't care about those lost lives. He only cared about his goals, which he determined to accomplish. As doors opened for the both of them, they slowly started to encounter the injured and uninjured Jiralhanae, fixing and helping each other up.

A captain, who had a broken left leg, was pushed out him to the left with force, causing the poor Brute to fall down next to the wall and placed all his effort in getting back up from the crash in vain. Jikartus felt pity for him but Mag, who pushed the captain, did not have one shred of it. Turning a left corner, continuing down the corridor, they finally came to the room. As soon as it opened for the 2 Brutes, a Stalker was sent flying through the air, passing right between suddenly surprised Jiralhanae leaders.

Jikartus stared at the upside down unconscious Stalker with an open maw, while Mag stared, and smiled with narrowed down eyes, at the awaken half organic/half machine Sangheili monster, that used to be Shin. His left eye was fully replaced with a solid red light, becoming his new sight. The yellow lights on his chest glowed, with his insides combined with machines to keep him alive. Even one of his hearts was replaced with a cybernetic, plasma producer to keep the machine parts going. His entire right arm was replaced with a robotic and much more creepier arm, exposing wires and beeping lights. Both his legs remained intact though, but the bottom of his neck was but nuts and bolts. For the most part though, his armour was still on him.

The new and much more terrifying Shin Tarscar was unable to speak, but a mechanic vocaliser was made to give the monster the ability to hiss, screech, roar and grumble with rage. He, or it, had even more strength than a regular Sangheili ever will, already exhibiting it by just throwing that Stalker into a wall. Magnaruckus liked this new elite, he liked it a lot.

"Jikartus, meet the Arbiter's and the black freak flyer's new enemy...I can't wait to see their faces, it'll be most enjoyable to watch that, and their deaths" Mag grinned, imaging what could be his nemesis's fate. Jikartus was completely paralysed by the sight of Shin's new look, freaked by the fact Mag and his small machines could even do something like this.

The more animalistic Shin Tarscar stared at his new leader, lowering its anger and bowing down to its new master, the one who brought him back...mostly.

"Rise my new servant, we still have much to do in preparations for the destruction of this pathetic resistance. Jikartus, get this Sangheili his weapons, the time has come to see his true potential in combat" Mag turned to the war chieftain, demanding him to get Shin's energy sword, spiker and his energy blade. Jikartus hesitated.

"B-but sir, why did replace a couple of his vital limbs, it was only spikes that caused him to die" he was quite confused by this.

"I just wanted to add a personal touch to our new ally. Now do as you're damn well told Jikartus, or you'll suffer the same fate as that Stalker!" Mag pointed at him, impatient for the war chieftain to complete his task. He nodded in far and ran for their one and only armoury, which held Shin's weapons. Mag turned back to the cyborg Sangheili monster.

"Arbiter and Cynder left you behind to die like a pathetic animal Shin...how would you like me to help repay them with their blood on the ground?" Magnaruckus smiled with glee, beyond happy to have an asset like Shin on his side. It could only respond with a low grumble, but the chieftain confirmed it as a positive reply.

"Good...I promise you'll enjoy it, ha ha ha ha!".

In Warfang, the moles were already bringing the city back to its former glory. The only thing the blast wave was able to effect the city with a gale force wind, which made a gale force wind blow almost everything away. The only left standing in the entire city was every building that was made of stone, that's at least 3 quarters of Warfang. The rest either collapsed, was blown away or completely destroyed, including wooden rubbish bins, posters, small but hard objects and much more. Terrador called a total cleanup of the city.

The cheetahs, Darst and the Lekgolo though were made to keep an eye out for their returning comrades, hoping that they'd come back very soon with Cynder, but judging from the recent event, something has gone horribly wrong, and it worries all of them. Hunter could only hope that Arbiter, Spyro and Shin are keeping the black dragoness safe and they were able to take shelter before the explosion could get to them. Darst had crossed arms, waiting patiently and having some confidence they will have returned unharmed. Unfortunately, they're going to get more than they bargained for, both the good and the bad.

"The sun is almost high in the sky and yet they have not come back...what if that explosion could've..." Hunter didn't want that to be cause of their late return. If so, everything looked grim for the resistance.

"I'm sure they would've taken cover from that massive sphere of devastation. They'll be back...I hope to the gods anyway" Kino whispered to himself.

On the ground just behind the wall upon which they stand on, in the dark shadows, a fully completed Locust walker stands silently in breeze, immobile, silent but deadly, like an assassin ready to strike. It had a fully bluish purple colour coated over it, the only decoration for this killer. The only thing it needed now was the wires and its core and it's good to go. Next to it was the Banshee, but has been fully remodelled into the more sleeker version that was used for the battle of Reach, reconfiguring the plasma cannons as well as the fuel rod gun on the front, even having to change the wings. Now, it was much more manoeuvrable and evasive at every point, able to dogfight a number of air foes.

With both of these vehicles completed, Only the weapons, equipment and armour were the only tasks left, which Darst and the moles already have covered, but they can't be revealed until Thel, Cynder, Spyro and Shin come back. Even the Grunts are needed for this. After a minute of heart pounding fear of loss, a small dot was spotted coming over the plains, moving directly in front of the extinct volcano that used to face Warfang. Kino and Hunter knew it was either the Brutes, or it could be them. In any case, the front guard had to be alerted.

"Dropship, dead ahead, going straight for the city! Let us hope it's who we know" Hunter called out to the mole guards, who were sitting against the brick walls. They jumped up in panic, thinking it could be more Jiralhanae.

"Get a hole of yourselves! Just ready your weapons, in case they are bringing the fight to us" the zealot raised his new upgraded spiker, which used had a metallic black glow to it. Hunter, instead of raising a Sangheili weapon, aimed a bow and arrow at the dropship. Kino was interested to know why the cheetah had made this act.

"Hmph, you use your own weapon instead of a plasma one? the others of your kind would mostly rather a rifle over what you have right there" Kino asked with raised brows.

"While your so called advanced weapons can only singe the flesh, an arrow can pierce between it, most likely striking the vital organs on the enemy, the heart of the lungs for example, and if it didn't kill you, you could be scarred for life" Hunter explained the advantages of arrow of a plasma shot. Kino smiled in response.

"Hmm, excellent point of views I must say..." Darst turned his attention back at the incoming Phantom, as did Hunter.

Onboard the dropship, Ventor noticed from the cockpit that the city was right in front of the them, a home stretch away. He looked the elites that were trying to help their smaller allies. Spyro was still losing blood and Yapflop was almost completely out of methane in his tank. Jabjab and Cynder were still laying at the back of the bay. An injured Thel, who kept on refusing treatment for his wounds, kept pressure on the purple dragon's abdomen, stopping as much red liquid as he could.

"Arbiter, the city you spoke of, we're almost there, it's in view right now!" he stared at the bleeding Vadam.

"Finally, (coughs) damn it, relinquish controls of the dropship to yourself, take us over the wall and bring us as close as you can to a white tent, that's the infirmary" he turned to Odesa, demanding him to pilot the Phantom now.

"B-but I only have one hand" the red armoured elite held up both his arms, with one hand up and the other completely missing.

"You said to me it would not hinder your progress captain, is it hindering it now?" Thel narrowed his left eye down, determined to get the answer. Ventor looked on the ground, closing his eyes and shaking his head, letting a deep sigh of defeat.

"Give me a minute, I'll try and get us to that tent" Odesa turned and sat in the cockpit seat, switching the auto pilot off and controlled the metal monstrosity with just his right hand, tilting the dropship lazily to the left, heading for the city in hopes of finding that infirmary. Thel looked at Spyro with worry spreading through his face, afraid that the purple dragon didn't have much time left before the grim reaper finally catches up to him.

"Don't shoot us, don't shoot us, PLEASE don't shoot us!" Sparx was hovering next Hunter, eyes closed with hands clamped together, praying the dropship was not going to fire. As it got closer, Darst knew it was in range, it could've already sent a barrage of death their way, but after a minute of Phantom humming...nothing happened.

"It's...it's not attacking us" Kino lowered his weapon close to his left side, holding the spiker with his left hand. Slowly and steadily, Hunter also lowered his bow, entrusting the zealot's words. Sparx opened his eyes, staring at the flying monster that was coming towards them.

"Lekgolo, hold your fire, it might be them!" Darst turned towards the two armoured worm colonies, steadily pulling their solid metal shields to their sides and lowering the power of their cannons.

"Finally...we're safe" Ventor murmured with a soft voice, completely and happily relieved to be somewhere far away from the murderous horrors of what used to be the Shadow of Intent.

The dropship flew over Warfang's mighty walls, flying over Darst's defence group, bringing a cold chill with it that ran through each of their bodies. The humming noise of the dropship went through the city, spreading a fear emotion. It was just something that is still completely new to the city, a technology beyond what the mole race has ever seen, technology that they might never get a hold of. They watched it with awe, hundreds of moles, the males, the females, even the small children that huddled against their mothers in fear, watching the massive barge fly over them.

At the white infirmary tent, the inside was mostly empty. Not many injuries has come up ever since Thel and Cynder's trip to it, leaving the doctors to just rest and relax most of the time. Doctor Clin, the mole who helped Arbiter's arm, was snoozing on his little wooden chair, leaning it back against an operating table. He was happily snoring, filling the room he was in with his annoying noise. Suddenly, another mole, wearing a guard's uniform, ran into the room, shouting out the sleep sounding doctor.

"Excuse me! Doctor!" the guard sounded disturbed and frightened, yelling at the top of his lungs. Clin woke up and humorously fell out of his chair in panic, hitting hard against the cobblestone ground with his head. A lurching pain came forth to the doctor, holding his forehead from where he hit it.

"Ow! This better be important, can't I dream without someone out to me?" he sounded a little annoyed awaking from his slumber, but what the guard had to say was important.

"One of those big, freakish, flying things is coming towards us! I think you better come see this" the guard pulled his broad sword out from the sheath that was against his left side, urging the doctor to come outside. Clin shook his head, confused why he had to come out.

"You're the protection around here, I don't know why you need me" the doctor ran out of the room, following the guard outside the tent.

The Phantom descended below average building height, lowering close to the ground. The hover boosters on the bottom of the dropship sent dust flying away from it, dust was swept up into a circle. The infirmary tent's material waved everywhere, but it was held to the ground with really strong and tight rope. The guards and doctors came rushing out, covering their eyes and glasses from the dust that was thrown at them. Clin was in the centre of them all.

"(Coughs) can't those giant beasts at least not make a mess again?" the doctor though it was Brutes, but he was most definitely wrong.

"I hope this is the tent Arbiter, I'm new to this place, as with the rest of us" Ventor got up from the pilot seat and looked down at Thel, still keeping pressure on that fatal wound. His hands were now drenched in Spyro's blood, which ached his two hearts, feeling your friend's own organic fluid trail all over your hands and the only thing you could do to stop it was to make sure that more did not come out, but it was almost hopeless for Thel.

"Thel?" Odesa tried to break through his mental mind. Vadam looked up at the veteran captain.

"Ok. Open the starboard side doors, lower the dropship so it touches down of the ground, Spyro and Yapflop are in enough pain as it is, so we need to be careful when we get them of the dropship.

Ventor nodded and turned to the cockpit, pressing a holo button to activate Thel's wanted door. Unfortunately, Spyro started coughing violently, each one made his blood jump up in the air and landing on his or Thel. Outside, the guards readied their weapons. Behind the dropship, a crowd of cheetahs and moles arrived to see who came out of the behemoth of an air vehicle.

Clin noticed, inside the dropship, it wasn't Jiralhanae, but elites, grunts and dragons. His mouth dropped in shock and he had to make sure the guards didn't do anything.

"Wait! Stop, it's the elites, don't do anything!" Clin pushed a guard's crossbow down and bashed away another guard's sword.

Darst, Hunter and Sparx, as well as the two Lekgolos, arrived between the mole crowds. Prowlus was in between the cheetah part, closest to the dropship. He started to think it wasn't Brutes, as well as the many others, but what does come out will shock them. They have noticed the two vehicles on the holders that the dropship had, and Darst knew instantly that only elites use a Spectre assault craft.

The door fully opened, revealing what was inside. The doctors were all having a jaw dropping moment, as they saw Tesk and the other low ranked Sangheili jump out with an unconscious Jabjab and Cynder in their arms. Tesk was holding Cynder gently in his arms, while one of the other blue armoured elites held Jabjab on their humped back. What really worried them is that Yapflop, carried carefully by another blue Sangheili that was behind Tesk, was badly scarred, burnt by an unknown fire source, to the moles anyway. What absolutely widened their eyes is that the purple dragon, was carefully being offloaded by a battered Thel and Ventor.

Odesa was still on the dropship whilst Thel was on the ground. Ventor leaned over the side, holding Spyro tightly as Arbiter grabbed him on the ground to carry him into the infirmary. While the guards stood aside the elites carrying the injured, the doctors went to aid those Sangheili carrying the wounded. They started leading them into the tent. Clin went straight for Arbiter, who was carrying the fatally wounded Spyro in his arms. The blood still kept dripping on the ground. The mole doctor, was unbelievably confused.

"Thel, what in the ancestors great battle zones happened to the purple dragon? Why is there more Sangheili? I thought this whole thing was to rescue Cynder and come back?" Clin walked alongside, helping Thel get to the tent. His voice was darkened by the sight that two Grunts and 2 Dragons were in a wrecked state, and Thel's wounds was not helping the mood.

"It was..." Thel kept his eyes aimed on the tent, desperate get Spyro onto a hospital bed.

"Then why is the purple savior fatally wounded? What's going on?" Clin's voice sounded angered but still trying to reach out, trying to help Arbiter in this painful time, but talk was not what Thel needed right now.

"Listen Clin, Spyro has been bleeding like this for an hour or more now, any minute now, he is going to die! You must help me!" Thel stared at Clin, breathing all that he could take in with broken ribs. Clin looked down on the round, grinding his teeth, begging to know what has happened, but he it was his duty to help Spyro, and his help is needed this instant.

"Follow me to the nearest bed, we might still have a chance to help him if we hasten things" Clin took the lead, taking Thel inside the infirmary with Ventor right behind him.

Before going in, Vadam looked at the completely frozen, but horrified crowds. Their savior, the hero of the war, the dark master's defeater, dying in Thel's arms, with Cynder completely in a comatose state, unable to do anything. The state of the Grunts also put fear into their minds. Each and every one of them had the same exact question in their head; what in the world happened last night.

Darst, who was staring into Thel's eyes, could not stress how badly he wanted to say that Thel's face. The zealot could only make whispers that Vadam instantly recognised from that far of a view.

"What happened Arbiter?".

**Not much to say except thank you to the people who recently reviewed, short or informative, thank you very much. Hope you enjoyed the chapter, but would Yapflop and Spyro make it through their wounds, or Jabjab lose his best friend and Cynder could never have her future with Spyro? because remember that spoiler from 35? no valid anymore, so it I could've changed it. Have a nice day! =)**


	41. A busy tent

The once quiet infirmary tent, once filled with snoozing mole doctors, was suddenly busy. The Elites that were carrying their comrades were being led by the moles to the rooms where they could rest them and help their wounds. Outside, the guards were trying to keep the curious and confused crowds outside to avoid any disaster that could be created and cascaded in the tent, even Darst and Hunter wasn't allowed inside. Sparx was too afraid to go in because he saw the state Spyro was in, and he couldn't bear to see it up close.

Doctors and medical examiners started leading the Sangheili down the hall that all the rooms were stationed, and the very first room was Cynder's. Tesk, up in front of the group, was signaled by an examiner to place the unconscious dragoness on a white clear bed. He nodded and departed the group that kept going down the hall.

"So, I just lay her here?" Tesk looked down at the examiner mole, who wore a more blackish suit than what the doctors wear.

"Yes, BUT GENTLY!" the mole pleaded Raskar, hoping he didn't do anything drastic.

Tesk looked at the bed, knowing this is all he could do for Cynder. A tear almost went down his eyes, filling his mind with sorrow. Just looking at her made him think how a small, polite and innocent dragoness like Cynder could become a creature of pure evil and darkness. He saw her, annihilating Shenko with a huge blast of pure energy, nothing like any of his species has ever seen, with the shadows surrounding her entire body, controlling her, corrupting her, desiring her to kill the Spec ops in cold blood for what he had done. Would she stay like it if Spyro was to die though?

Smartly, Tesk shook it off, worrying about it no more, slowly and gently laid Cynder on the soft, comfortable bed. She lay on her left side, with her right wing covering most parts of her underbelly. The examiner grabbed a stool to stand on to be at the height of the bed and opened her mouth so she could breathe better, letting in the flow of oxygen enter her lungs with ease. He started to feel her forehead with his paws, touching the markings. He instantly felt the heat from her head, hot as the burning plains of the war. This caused some concern to him.

"So, what happened to her?" the mole asked. Tesk didn't hesitate to give out the answer.

"Well, she created a huge blast of energy destroyed the power source inside our ship. Combined with that, plus every other power source, she was the main reason the explosion was created. She collapsed on the floor from her...experience" Tesk didn't seem to keen to reveal what dwelled within her still, but that wasn't what the mole was concerned about

"Dear me, if this dragoness wasted anymore of her energy, she would've died!" he exclaimed, with a voice filled with shock.

"Do these sorts of cases come up often?" Raskar looked down at the mole.

"Well, before the dragons' numbers dwindled after the war, these sorts of events were quite common, but only when they start to become tired is when the cases started popping up. The black one here has been completely drained of her energy, and that is sometimes lethal to any dragon...without their energy, they grow weak and tired, not being able to think straight, unwilling to eat and drink, and in no time, they perish...without proper resources to help her, she will die" the mole caressed along the markings on her forehead, putting the dragoness at ease as her claws started digging into the bed, her breathing started becoming deeper, tired and completely exhausted. The mole felt the sweat on her forehead as well. Tesk noticed it too.

"How is she sweating like that, she hasn't had anything to drink in the last 7 or 8 hours that I know of" he was sort of confused, but his voice sounded concerned as well.

"That's just it, the complete loss of her power and energy automatically causes the dragon brain to tick into the sweating stage, even though she hasn't done much exercise or training. That's the indication of her brain becoming completely disorganized" the mole jerked his body towards a desk, behind it was a box full of green crystals, the essence of a dragon's energy and power.

"What are those things?" Tesk observed the mole taking the box into his own hands.

"These little things will solve all our problems. Green crystals hold the very power of a dragon, not matter what kind they are, they absorb these gems and regain their power in an instant. Of course they still need food and water, their power comes from this thing" he brought a tray from next to the bed and placed the box on top of it, next to Cynder.

The crystals started reacting to her energy diminished body, glowing, hovering in the air, to the Sangheili's complete and utterly priceless surprise. They landed on her, slowly melting between her scales, entering her body and refreshing her mind. She was finally at ease, as her claws retracted back into her paws and the sweat started dissipating. To both of their relief, Tesk and the mole smiled.

"Disaster diverted no problem at all, and in no time, she'll wake up feeling better and new. Now, while we're on the subject of energy loss, how in the ancestors did she drain her power so quickly that it made her collapse? What did you mean by...experience?" the mole raised his left brow, with his claws on his furry hips. Tesk shifted his eyes left and right, to see if they were the only ones in the room. He stared back at the examiner after the coast was clear.

"Well, I only saw a bit of what she did, or was if I must say, but she was...this, this monster, she...I don't know how to explain it" Raskar shook his head, ashamed that he couldn't find a way to describe Cynder was. The mole sighed.

"Never mind, I'll see if she has any other medical cases that need to be checked, you can see how the rest of your friends are doing" the mole started feeling other parts of her body, including her horns, wings and belly, in case anything else has affected Cynder.

"But is she going to be ok? I need to know sir" Tesk lowered down to the mole's height, begging for an answer.

"She'll be fine, as long as she gets some green crystals and rest. I'll see if I can get her something to eat and drink as well, poor thing seems to be sleeping on an empty stomach. Now go, see if the others are alright" the examiner pointed out the room exit. Tesk mentally sighed, but he nodded, and exited out the room, but not before letting the dragoness out of his sight.

"Get better soon Cynder...we all have to be ready for whatever those Brutes throw at us" and with that, he went to look for everyone else inside the tent.

"The Grunt is only knocked out, injuries aren't as bad as you think elite, he'll heal up soon...but get me that bucket of water" in another room, a doctor and the elite that carried Jabjab were checking on him. Tesk was just outside of Jabjab's resting place, spectating the events that unfolded in there.

Sitting against the soft tent wall on a bed, lazily having his head drooped down and arms spread out, Jabjab was still breathing his methane perfectly fine, with no trouble at all. His skin was still in good shape, but his armour was badly damaged, scarred, not too badly though.

"What caused him end up in this state?" the mole standing on a stool asked, turning to the blue armored elite, who was holding a lumber created bucket filled with crystal clear water.

"Concussion shots from the looks of it, from one of our rifles. They're powerful, but I think no more than two shots was put into his armour" the average sized elite explained to the doctor, putting a smile on his furry face.

"Well in that case then, hand me that bucket and we'll get him up and back on his feet" the mole shifted his body around to face the Sangheili, holding out both his hands and asking for the water.

"Are you sure this won't do any harm?" he handed him the bucket.

"My intergalactic friend, water is as harmless as a fly...except in you drown in it, then you're in real trouble" the mole shifted back to the green grunt, unbeknownst to him, he was going to be one wet Unggoy.

The doctor took a deep breath, taking the bucket by its sides and holding it over Jabjab and tipped the water on him, creating a small water fall. It tinkled all over his mask and face, and little Jabjab started tilting around his mask, slowly waking up. He slowly opened the lids on his eyes, jerking them left and right, gradually getting rid of the blur of his vision. He started breathing a lot better as the water kept pouring on his face and finally, he could start speaking again.

"H-huh, w-what the...wher-" suddenly, the mole tipped all of the water out in one whole go, all of it splashing onto Jabjab which caused him to get up, fall off the bed and squeak like a mouse in pain, suddenly shivering all over his body as the chills surrounded him.

"Hm, that did it" the doctor smiled. The elite's eyes were widened with surprise.

"Agh! What the heck was that for? I was just waking up and what do you do? TIP THE WHOLE THING ON ME! ARGH! SWEET MOTHER OF NIPPLE!" Jabjab cursed, wiping the water of his armour, which in turn, made it a little shinier.

"Get over yourself Unggoy, a little liquid helps you anyway" the Sangheili crossed his arms in such a commanding way, for a minor rank anyway.

"And who are you anyway? You with the captain's group?" Jabjab grabbed a nearby towel on a rack to wipe the rest of the water off.

"Sarvasu, and yes, I'm part of captain Odesa's group, is that a problem?" he narrowed his eyes down at little Jabjab.

"No, just that I'm used to talking to the Arbiter or Shin or the zealot guy" Jabjab dropped the towel and stared at the mole, the time for questioning was now.

"Alright fur man, where am I?" Jabjab demanded with his arms against his hips.

"You're in the infirmary tent of Warfang, the only one in the city. Your friends brought you here. I think you're also the first one to wake up, and you're friend, the one you call Yapflop is...not doing very well" the doctor lowered his head, the last of his words brought a wide eye to Jabjab, total shock and calamity went through his mind.

"YAPFLOP! NO! I HAVE TO FIND HIM! WHERE IS HE?" Jabjab grabbed the mole with claws, slightly crushing the furry creature. He could only shriek to talk.

"HE'S IN THE NEXT ROOM, JUST ON THE LEFT...PLEASE LET ME GO, I CAN'T MOVE!" the mole struggled to get free of Jabjab's tight grasp, shaking his body around. Jabjab dropped him and ran out of the room, turning right into the hall, which was away from Yapflop's room. The stumbling mole stumbled back and forth, but was able to correct Jabjab's error.

"Other way..." Jabjab was soon seen running past the other direction, desperate to see his orange armour wearing friend, praying to the gods that he was going to be alright. Tesk shrugged his shoulders, and decided to see if Jabjab's best friend is going to make it.

Going down the hall, looking to his left, Jabjab spotted 2 minor ranked Sangheili, standing aside next to the room walls, but they had to spectate, watching 4 moles try and save Yapflop. They were getting him to lie on his back, removing the rest of his damaged back pack and chucking the remains on the floor. Jabjab stuck against outside, spying on Yapflop's procedure.

The orange Grunt was breathing erratically, squeaking each time his chest went down, coughing every second his lungs couldn't get enough methane. He was being restrained by the moles, the examiners which had to hold him down by his arms and legs so the doctors could insert a syringe to keep him stabilized. He screeched as a needle went into his neck, grappling an examiners right arm and squeezing it hard, so hard that the mole that was trying to restrain him by the arms backed off in pain. His skin under the fur was bleeding, but it wasn't in vain as Yapflop started to calm down, his entire body started easing up and simply laid his head on the pillow and let his body rest.

Relief welled inside the moles as the two examiners jumped off the bed and let the doctors continue their work, but there wasn't anything they could do. The two doctors turned around and faced up at the Sangheili, with no choice, having to give out the bad news.

"I'm afraid, elites, that...we cannot save the Grunt. We do not have the type of oxygen that Yapflop breathes. Even if we did, we do not have a spare breathing mechanism he uses. If what you say is true about the fact that he only inhales methane...then unfortunately, he will suffocate in a matter of seconds. I'm terribly sorry...we all are" The doctor holding the syringe bowed his head after telling them, ashamed that there was no way to give Yapflop the oxygen he needs. The minor ranked Sangheili nodded, and the one wearing blue but close to purple armour spoke, his voice touched by the bad news,

"(Sighs) It's okay doctor, it was inevitable for him...I'll tell the Arbiter that the Grunt is-" in a shriek of cry started entering everyone's hearing, as Jabjab ran in the room.

"NOOOO, YAPFLOP! DON'T DIE! DON'T DIE, PLEASE!" he ran past the elites and moles, frightened by hi, as his arrival went unnoticed. His tears were pouring out of his eyes, jumping onto the bed and stared at Yapflop, begging for him to wake up.

"YAPFLOP! WAKE UP DUDE! WAKE UP, DON'T DIE, YOU'RE THE ONLY FRIEND I GOT, YOU AND I ARE THE ONLY TWO GRUNTS IN THIS CITY, DON'T MAKE IT ONE LESS!" Jabjab grabbed by the Yapflop's shoulders, rocking him back in forth, trying desperately to rip him out of his drugged state. It was all in vain though, when the mole named Richt, who was holding the syringe, had to give Jabjab more unfortunate news.

"Grunt, there's nothing you can do to save him. What we gave him was a small dose of a sedative, not enough in which to put him to sleep. If he was still among us, he would be awake from what you just did...you might have to accept the fact that...he's gone" his voice toned down to an almost silent whisper, expressing the loss of Jabjab's comrade. The solid blue armored Sangheili thus spoke, showing his own part of the deceased Grunt.

"He died with Unggoy, there is no doubt about it. Please, give us a moment so we can find a perfect place to bury him, somewhere green I recommend" the elite didn't sound as destroyed Jabjab or Richt did, probably not as caring for Grunts. Richt placed his paw on Jabjab's left shoulder, signaling him to come off the bed and leave Yapflop in, but the green armored Grunt jerked himself around and, with a violent and angry facial expression and yelled at Richt.

"NO, WE'RE NOT BURYING HIM YET, YOU HAVEN'T DONE ANYTHING TO HELP HIM, YOU ONLY STUCK A NEEDLE IN HIS NECK AND THAT'S IT! DO SOMETHING, PLEASE, THERE MUST BE A WAY, THERE'S ALWAYS OTHER OPTIONS!" Jabjab yelled right in Richt's face, but still, he wasn't convinced.

"I'm sorry Jabjab, there is absolutely nothing that we can do to-" suddenly, a weak voice rose from behind Jabjab, freezing them with total shock as the voice sounded very familiar.

"Ung...Jab...jab? Why are you yelling? It's hurting my head?" Yapflop looked at everyone in front of him with half opened eyes. Jabjab turned slowly, his eyes wide open as flying saucers and stared at Yapflop. Richt's mouth dropped, as well as Tesk's and everyone else's face did.

"Yapflop...you're alive?" the shock in Jabjab's voice came suddenly clear to everyone. The orange Grunt took off his mask, revealing his wide mouth full of sharp teeth. He had lips to cover them at least.

"Jabjab, you're not going to believe this but...I can breathe in this world's air. It smells...so pretty like" Yapflop smiled, ignoring his injuries. Jabjab stared down at his mask. He too took it off and smelt the fresh air of this planet. It was...intoxicating.

"Holy dead prophets...we can breathe without methane?" he was so suddenly surprised by this. They can both breathe this world's own oxygen, something that no other planet allowed. Jabjab then turned his full attention back to Yapflop, and suddenly hugging in a grunty manner, so happy and so pleased that Yapflop was still alive.

"YAPFLOP! FRIEND! BROTHER...THEY, (sniffs) THEY KEPT SAYING YOU WERE DEAD! I STILL BELIEVED YOU WERE ALIVE! AND YOU ARE! YOU CAN'T TELL HOW HAPPY I AM RIGHT NOW DUDE!" Jabjab was crying with total joy, crushing Yapflop with his arms.

"ACK! (Chokes) YOU'RE GOING TO CHOME ME TO DEATH IF YOU KEEP GOING!" Yapflop was once again cut off from air, but Jabjab let go as soon as he said that.

"Oh, sorry. I'm just so glad you're alive, now I can prove these stupid elites wrong" he turned to the Sangheili, "Hey, elites, he still alive! Ha ha ha! What you gotta say to that, huh?" a smart and cocky attitude left Jabjab's mouth that hardly moved the stunned elites. To them, these Grunts were just full of surprises.

**Sorry for the somewhat small chapter, I'm going camping for a week, so I decided just to put this up as an update. The rest of this part of the story will most likely involve Spyro's little medical thing and Cynder is most likely going to be awake in this at so obviously, a little "lovey dovey" stuff is going to come into it like chapter 34, before those fight scenes. I hope you don't mind that, I just find it touching myself for some reason odd reason, and it sorta parts up the drama of the story. Besides if you don't find anything at least bit emotional, you have got to be one of the most jaded persons on the planet. Anyway's, reached 60 reviews! thank you, you awesome people, you're all awesome! Stay awesome, until next time. Have an awesome day...(man I got to cut that out now).**


	42. To save the purple savior

The crowds were still gathered around the infirmary, trying desperately to see what was going on inside, wanting to if the Grunts and the young Dragons were going to make it through their wounds, hoping that Cynder and Jabjab will wake up from their unconscious minds, praying that Spyro and Yapflop will live from the most fatal of injuries. There were a huge quantity of questions among the crowds, they still wanted to know who or what created the explosion, how were they able to acquire a Phantom dropship and the 2 vehicles, and most importantly, where was Shin?

Darst and Hunter were at the front of the tent entrance, having to push their way through the crowds to reach it, but the mole guards were still blocking them and there was no way through without using force, which might get them into deep trouble if they did. Kino wasn't planning on rebuilding another structure, so he had to ask the armored furballs with the most amount of kindness.

"Listen you furry freaks! We must get in there and find out what's happened, if you stand aside, I will make sure that we won't cause any trouble, it's a simple request!" the zealot growled with strong animosity, having to give a freakish facial expression that will haunt the moles for weeks, but the guards relented.

"No one is allowed in until the guardians arrive, they'll decide to let you in or not! Now stand back!" the most armored mole out of the group poked Darst in the stomach with his spear, giving him a jolt of pain and a mild roar. Kino growled in response, but Hunter interrupted just before the zealot tore the guard's arms off.

"Easy Darst. I understand the situation that you've suddenly been put in, but we must enter noble guard, our companions, our friends are in there and we need to see them, this is the utmost urgent of requests, you must see that!" Hunter tried to be as polite as he possible could to the armored mole, but still it did nothing to change his mind.

"You don't understand Cheetah; these crowds will overrun the infirmary, even if I did let you. As soon as you move, the crowds will rush when they get that only chance, back off! I said wait until the guardians come! They'll be here in just a minute!" the guard tried to ease them by lying about how much time they could be here, but Darst was an impatient zealot and this was not time for waiting.

"We don't have a minute you fool! Let us in or so help me, I will rip your eyes out and throw them at a Brute!" Darst continued by threatening the mole this time. A sudden, thundering voice was called out from above.

"There's no need for violence Kino" Terrador called out to the zealot, flying above the crowds with Cyril. Volteer must've stayed at the Atrium. The large crowds cleared the way for the two elder dragons, giving them a place to land near the infirmary and end this pointless argument between the mole and Kino.

"Mason, let Hunter and Darst into the infirmary, they have every right to see them" Cyril requested the armored mole to stand down and let the Cheetah and zealot warriors into the tent, and Mason gave out his warning in response.

"Sire, if I let them in, they'll just rush in and cause a major catastrophe in there, it's too risky" he pleaded Cyril to change his mind, but Terrador went along with Cyril's demand, with a notice to the crowds.

"Let them in mole. Citizens of Warfang, only the Sangheili and the Cheetah are allowed through to the tent, you will stay out until we find out what has happened, and that is an order to each and every one of you!" Terrador's rumbling voice was able to change Mason's mind and the crowds slowly backed off. The mole guards stood aside and let the Darst and Hunter in. Sparx hovered behind the cloak wearing Cheetah, changing his mind about not going into the infirmary, but curiosity and worry got the best of the Dragonfly.

Inside the tent, things were looking dire and grim. Spyro was laying his back against the soft bloodied bed, his abdomen was still letting loose the red liquid of his insides, the doctors are unable to stop the bleeding. Ventor watched from a dark corner across the room, watching Thel and 3 mole doctors try to stop the purple dragon from dying by this fatal wound. He was barely breathing, continually coughing up blood from his maw, and not having any more strength to stop it. Every second, he kept getting weaker, his breathing becomes even more of a challenge and his heart will soon fail to pump any more blood out...and it will kill him.

The moles only had red crystals to try and close the abdomen but it's a slow procedure. Crystals only heal small wounds quickly, larger and more fatal wounds took time and most dragons never come out of it alive. Since it was an energy dagger that did this to him, it may take even more time, because crystals and energy wounds don't seem like the kind of combination when it comes down to healing them. The moles had no choice, this was the only way to stop the bleeding and Thel was here to give the crystals time to work their magic.

"Arbiter, we've given him enough of these to make sure this wound regenerates, but if you don't keep pressure on his stomach, he could still die. Keep your hands on that abomination of an injury!" the doctors ordered the Sangheili, Spyro's life depended on it. Vadam did as he was told; placing both his 4 fingered elite hands on open hole, once again feeling the dragon's insides. It was a pleasant feeling.

"Are you sure these objects will save him?" Thel looked at the mole in charge, carrying the wooden box full of red crystals.

"We don't know, from what you told me, an energy dagger wound probably won't even be affected by the crystals, then all of this will be in vain, but this is the only option we've got, now, keep pressure on him!" the mole pointed at Thel, with a demanding but desperate tone. Vadam's face turned to worry, fearing that this may not work. He looked at the purple dragon, who was half awake for this.

"T-T-Thel, is-i-is it ser-serious?" Spyro stuttered, unable to even talk properly with the blood gushing up inside his throat.

"Try not to talk Spyro, you're only hurting yourself" Vadam's voice was filled with a sorrowful tone, slowly losing any hope of saving the purple dragon.

"Y-You seem s-sad about s-something (coughs), what's wrong?" the dragon wanted to know why the mighty Arbiter was close to letting a tear out. Thel shook his face, trying to rid whatever is going to come out from his eyes. He breathed in, readying to explain his answer.

"I always seem to fail at my tasks now...I couldn't get to Cynder in time when Mag confronted her, I couldn't stop the Jiralhanae from shooting you back at their encampment, the dragoness was shot by Darst when I was his target, Shin was shot to death by the Jiralhanae, I left Rtas to die on the bridge of the Shadow and now just recently...I stood by while you were impaled by that wretched traitor. I was in the room when he stabbed you and when he shot the Grunts...I could've averted all of it, but... (sigh)...I do not deserve the title as Arbiter, the hero rank of my people...when I let others suffer for what one of my kind has done" he bowed his head and closed his eyelids in total shame, dishonored that this has all happened in just a few days. Ventor hated Thel's attitude right now.

"Arbiter, that attitude of yours is a sign of the weak! Of dishonor! A Sangheili that cries about past events is dishonorable! You should know better!" Odesa walked out from the dark corner, despising Thel's talk of letting the others suffer because of Shenko. Vadam's slit pupils revealed themselves again; anger and rage dwelled within him, like there was suddenly fire in his soul. His head shifted around with fury, staring at Odesa and striking fear into him. He moved his left hand from Spyro's wound to point right at the captain.

"Don't you dare, in a thousand years, tell me about the methods of dishonor! Our honor is the reason why our civilization is crumbling so slowly, because we think about IT first and families and friends second! That's exactly like what the Brute on the Shadow did, he put the Covenant before his own family back on the Jiralhanae homeworld! He joined it, leaving them all, because he believed in the Prophet's lies. We put honor before others we care about! The Humans, they do it the other way around...that's why I've grown fond of them" Thel put his hand back on Spyro's slowly regenerating wound, letting Ventor soak up what he just said. This only fuelled Ventor's side of this.

"You have been spending too much time around with the demon, and you've spent too much time with that dragon and the black one, by doing this, you've forgotten about the ways of our people! You are starting to become a traitor, just like Shenko!" Ventor grabbed his energy sword in his one and only hand, activating it and threatened Thel with it. The moles backed up against the wall, hoping to avoid any attack made by the zealous warrior. Vadam though, wasn't intimidated by it.

"I dare you Ventor...you will only hurt yourself in the end" he didn't even turn around to look at the blade, still helping Spyro. The purple dragon's eyes widened by Ventor's act of threat towards the Arbiter, a daring but blind threat.

"You're making me do this Thel, don't make m-" in a sudden and surprising turn of events, Darst jerked Ventor's body around and grabbed him by the throat with a strong right arm, hoisting him up in the air dropping the sword, which deactivated when it landed on the ground. His eyes slit thinned like small lines as he was cut off from the oxygen and his mandibles dropped in awe as he stared at the only crimson zealot to survive Reach.

"ACK! A CRIMSON ZEALOT? BUT...BUT HOW YOU DID...WHERE DID YOU..." Ventor could hardly speak as he struggled to get free, but Darst was too strong and wasn't willing to release the veteran captain.

"Arbiter, what do you want me to do with this piece of trash?" Kino politely asked his superior.

"Toss him out of the tent and tell those guards not to let him back in...I'll deal with you later Ventor" Vadam promised just that, and with the pointless argument and threats over, Darst carried Ventor out of the tent.

Tesk and the Grunts walked with Hunter and Sparx, coming to see if Spyro was going to make it. The Cheetah instantly not how bad Thel was hurt, the damaged armour and the small purple blood patches revealed all.

"Thel, you're hurt, do you need medical aid?" Hunter asked his inter galactic Sangheili ally.

"Not until Spyro has fully recovered from this fatal attack. If I let my both hands off the wound for one second, the crystals won't save him and he won't be among us anymore...I have to save him, for what the traitor has done" his voice sounded angered, remembering Shenko from the plasma reactor fight.

"Oh yeah, Shenko, he was the guy who tried to kill me as well, he he, he failed that one" Yapflop said, happy that he could breathe this world's oxygen. Thel looked at the Grunt, absolutely surprised that he was still alive, but how?

"Grunt? H-how are you breathing without your tank?" Vadam's voice sounded cheery again.

"I'll explain that one, this world has thousands of creatures breathing upon its land, unlike other worlds you elites told us about, this world has a ton of magic surrounding. I think it's no surprise that your little friend can breathe without his required methane" Hunter explained. It still confused the elites, and even the Unggoy himself, but right now wasn't the time for facts.

"In any case, it's still good to have you with us Grunt. Try not to end up dead again" Vadam smirked.

"You worry about yourself Arbiter, I can take care of myself" the Grunt smiled. Darst finally came back into the room, after dispensing of some 'trash'.

"Problem solved Thel. Now to the point; what happened when you were off to rescue Cynder, and why do we have more elites in the city now...and where's Shin?" Kino just remembered that Shin wasn't around, but Thel bowed his down. He wanted to tell everyone what's happened, and right now wasn't the place.

"Everyone...please leave this room...I'll tell you about when I got my injuries healed up" Vadam still didn't look at them, asking everyone to leave. Hunter took a step forward and placed his left paw on Arbiter's right shoulder.

"Is Spyro going to make it?" Hunter's voice was light, concerned about the purple dragon. Thel lifted his red splattered hands up slightly. The crystals were working, some of the wound has regenerated, the muscles were slowly tying back together again, the open stomach has repaired itself and the intestines were neatly packed together again. These were indeed good signs, so Thel lifted up hands and placed them at his sides. He couldn't help but smile.

"I think...I think he's going to make it. The crystals have outdone themselves...I...I can sleep well tonight now" Arbiter was so happy inside. Spyro has lived from a fatal wound, one that most dragons would not survive from, let alone it was an energy dagger that has done this to him. Thel breathed in a fresh gallon of air, but then felt a jolt of pain in his chest, remembering that a few ribs may be broken. Spyro's coughing slowly stopped and his breathing began to return to normal. It seems now that Shenko's efforts of killing the purple dragon slowly fading, all of it was in vain.

"This is good news then! We can tell all of Warfang that everyone has been brought back safe and sound. It's a good thing you returned with everyone Arbiter, you truly are a hero of your race" Hunter smiled, but that brought Thel down once again. His smiled turned into a frown, knowing he failed to bring Shin back. Spyro looked at the elite and he knew what was on his mind.

"Tell them Thel...tell them about what happened to him" Spyro urged Thel into revealing the whereabouts of Tarscar. Hunter raised a brow and so did Darst. Instantly, Kino got the fact that something has happened to his trusty Sangheili friend.

"Arbiter...where's Shin?" his voice sounded firm, accompanied by a hint of anger. Thel looked back at them then shifted his entire body around to them. It was time to reveal Shin's fate at the hands of the Brutes.

"Shin...he...he didn't make it Darst. He was killed by the Brutes...I'll tell you the rest later. Just please, leave me alone for now" Thel went to sit down on the chair, going to think about the past events from the rescue mission to the Shadow blowing up.

Darst was frozen stiff, horrified that Shin was murdered by the vile beasts. He remembered the moments he had with Tarscar, after the Library fire, when they first met Jabjab and Yapflop, taking on the Hunters...and now he was dead. This came as a total shock to both Hunter and Kino. Sparx came out from Hunter's cloak, just hearing the news about Shin. He was just shocked as both of them. The zealot looked on the ground and then knew what had to be done. He was about shed a tear but he would cover it before anyone could see it.

"This...this has to be told! He deserves to be remembered!" Darst stormed out of the room, leaving Tesk and the other elites behind. Hunter looked at Thel, feeling so sorry for his loss; it's horribly staggering to lose someone you know dearly.

"I'm...I'm greatly sorry for your loss Thel. We'll leave you and Spyro here if you want us gone from your sights" Hunter turned and got everyone, including the moles and the Grunts to leave, "Give Thel some time alone...let him ponder about this, this horrible tragedy" and with that, they exited the room, but Hunter looked back at the mentally destroyed Vadam, who was a total wreck from these recent events. The Cheetah continued to leave room, out of Thel's sight.

Sparx, before leaving, hovered above Spyro, happy that the purple dragon was going to live now. Spyro smiled back at his half brother, glad to see that no one has crushed him yet.

"It's good to have you bro...you gave me quite a scare. I thought that...I thought...don't cry, don't cry, damn it!" Sparx tried to stop the tears coming out of him, but Spyro happily grinned at the dragonfly.

"It's ok Sparx, it's all right to feel that way" he assured him.

"No, it's something's in my eye, Agh! It won't come out!" he continued to press against his eyelids with both of his hands. The dragon chuckled cheerfully.

"All right...ok, I think I'm good. I guess I'll let you get some rest now" Sparx opened his eyes smirked.

"Wait, where's Cynder?" Spyro suddenly realized that Cynder wasn't around at all, but a light but shocked voice was spoken behind Sparx's back.

"Spyro?" They both looked at the room entrance and saw a frozen Cynder, standing there with her mouth half open. She stared right at her loved one, so shocked and awed, remembering the last thing she saw of Spyro was when he was impaled in the stomach by Shenko. No word could describe how happy she was. Spyro's widened eyes of shock soon turned into a smile of happiness and joy. He needed her so much right now.

"Um...this is starting to get awkward now so...I'm gonna leave you two to have your lovey dovey moment now" Sparx flew out the room, leaving the dragon and dragoness to have their moment together.

Spyro, entirely ignoring his wound that still wasn't fully healed, got off the blood covered bed and stood on all 4, staring right at her, his amethyst eyes into her emerald eyes. She walked over to him, with such calm movement. Her body ached for his, needing him after all this time. She thought he was dead, she thought her future was over, she thought that this was the end for her, but in front of the purple dragon was recovering and, all she wanted was his love.

He stood there, waiting for her, coming closer and closer. Just a couple of meters away from her, he was going to comfort her, but all of a sudden, her face turned to a little bit angry, slapping him across the face with her right paw, his face jerked to the side. All of a sudden, the lust to comfort her was lost.

"Ow! what was that fo-" when he stared back at dragoness, a bit enraged that she did that to him, before he could even retaliate, she passionately kissed him, her mouth and his mouth came together and all the anger that welled up in him instantly disappeared.

Her eyes closed as soon as she made this move, wrapping her wings around his back and brought him even closer to her, both of their chests rubbed against each other. She felt his heart pumping strong but very fast, maybe a reaction to them in this position. Spyro rolled his eyes and decided to drop what she did to him, and closed his own eyes to enjoy this moment. He even wrapped his wings around her back, making sure she was secure and safe with him. Moans of pure pleasure kept escaping her, and eventually, Spyro made his own moans. He raised his right paw and slowly caressed her left cheek. This was a sign that they were together for the rest of their lives.

Arbiter looked up a saw the dragon couple in that act and suddenly, all of his sorrow diminished. Thel could only express happiness for them, that he was able to save Spyro and save both of their future from fading away. He couldn't think up one moment of guilt or shame because it brought joy and happiness to him, something he rarely feels during time of grief and regret. It makes him wonder if he would ever have a future with someone he could live with for the rest of his life.

They both broke the kiss, both of them opening their eyes and Cynder placed her head under Spyro's chin, against his neck, almost about to cry.

"I thought you were dead Spyro! Don't ever do that to me again!" she sobbed as her tears went down to the tip of her nose, going against his skin. He tightened the grip with his wings, wanting the dragoness's touch against him even more.

"Is that why you slapped me?" he smirked. She pulled away from his neck to lick him around his cheeks.

"I'm sorry, but you needed to be taught a lesson. You're not allowed to die in front of me, EVER!" she stopped licking and rested her head against his.

"Ok, ok, I won't do it again...I love you Cynder" he closed his eyes again and enjoyed her comfort.

"I love you too Spyro...I love you so much" she closed her eyes as well, feeling like she was about to fall asleep. They were both enjoying each other's contact

"And Cynder?"

"Yes Spyro?" her eyelids lifted a bit, smiling at him.

"Can we find some bandages please? My guts feel like they're about to drop out of me" Spyro opened his eyes wide open. She pulled away, remembering that the injury was still there.

"Oh, sorry" Where are they?" her wings left him go, as he did with his too. Thel then came up next to them, holding a roll of white, soft bandages.

"I think you're looking for this, stay still, I'll put them on" Thel kneeled down and started wrapping them around his belly and back. Cynder winked her right eyelid, finding this a little entertaining to watch. Spyro rolled his eyes.

"There you go, you're stomach shouldn't fall out now" Thel stood up and crossed his arms with a smirk. The purple dragon twisted his head around and stared at the white cotton, feeling much better than when it wasn't on before. Cynder tilted her to the left.

"Hmm, Spyro, you're not as good looking as before now that you have that bandage on now" she frowned with a raised brow.

"Hey, I take offence from, wait, what did you just say?" he was a bit offended at first but suddenly became shocked that she said that.

"Just joking, you're a handsome dragon...to me anyway" she gave him a seductive look, and Spyro's eyes were then wide open. He looked up at Thel, waiting for some sort of reaction to what she said.

"Like I before, you're a lover boy" Thel kept a straight face. His time on their homeworld has really changed him since his ship crashed here; he wouldn't even say words like that during the war. The war was the reason why he kept a straight and secure attitude, even towards Truth. Spyro looked away from Thel, slowly starting to think that the Sangheili was becoming as annoying as was Sparx towards him and Cynder's relationship. He didn't want another person using that sort of attitude towards himself.

"So, what now Vadam?" Cynder looked up at him.

"First things first, how long has it been since you two ate?" Thel stared at both of them, uncrossing his arms.

"I don't really feel like eating right now, my stomach just came back, it needs time to reorganize itself" Spyro rejected the idea of eating just after his abdomen regenerated. Thel then looked directly at the dragoness.

"I had something just after I woke up, I think the mole left it for me, it was really nice" she smiled. In her room, the doctor came back with a plate that had 3 chops of stake on top of it, but as soon as he entered, she wasn't there...and neither was his dinner.

"Ok, who ate my cooked fish...that dragoness! She ate it! (sigh) Note to self; never leave a dragoness that was evil 3 years ago unattended. So who's gonna eat this then...I wonder how it tastes..." Richt grabbed a chop and bit into it, swallowing it down and a delightful sensation came to him.

"Oh wow, what a delicacy, no wonder they eat this stuff".

Back in the room, Thel decided it was time to leave the infirmary.

"C'mon then. I suspect everyone is wanting an explanation for all that has happened" Thel looked a bit down, knowing that he had to face crowds of thousands now, all wanting answers.

"Arbiter, we're with you every step of the way" Cynder stood aside on his right.

"Don't worry, we'll get through this" Spyro stood on his left. He looked at them, glad to know that they were with for this.

"Thank you...both of you...let's give them the news then" Thel cracked his neck , tilting it side by side and walked out of the room, with Cynder and Spyro right behind him.

**I decided I didn't want to go camping, so that's why this is up. Hope you enjoyed it because now Arbiter has to reveal all that has happened recently. To tell you the truth, I never thought the search and rescue mission was gonna turn into...all this. I've totaled to 40 chapters!(41 if the two fight scenes are separated) and over 60 reviews, this story is turning into quite the success! Thx everyone, and have a nice day**


	43. Jiralhanae fatality

**Before I get started, I need to reply to a few more recent reviews and here they are:**

**Epic win: If you mean one of the armoured Hunter creatures, well he's always with his brother, so even though if I only mention one Lekgolo Hunter, the other one is always with him, even if the other isn't mentioned. Use your imagination, I do with this story. Besides, Hunters are always sent in pairs and they never split off in two different directions, everyone who has played halo knows that.**

**YOU Are needed at the office: Please dude, have a look at the latest chapters, you're reading off number 14,many others have over 3,000 words.**

**Pie face: I obviously don't know your brother's personality towards girls, but Thel and Cynder are just good friends, both of them rarely had any during both wars. If you're thinking that some weird sexual thing is going to happen between them, then...no...that's a definite no right there. They're just friends in this story and that's all they'll ever be. **

**By the way, leave question reviews at the latest chapter, I hate answering ones where it's about what happened in the middle of the story. The latest chapters sometimes answers them. Also, it makes things a tad bit easier to answer back.**

**Sorry about that everyone but on with the story.**

Magnaruckus and Jikartus, accompanied by the half reconstructed cyborg Shin, have travelled far from Tarscar's reconstruction room to the hanger, where most of the Brutes are reorganising in platoons, awaiting their chieftain's orders. A few dropships hovered above, steadily avoiding the wreckage of the battlecruiser's falling. A support bar fell off from ceiling of the hanger, narrowly missing a Phantom that veered left of it, and landing on a panicking Stalker and captaim below that didn't get to the rest of their brothers in time. Magnaruckus, having his hands behind back, smirked and chuckled with a rumbling voice.

"It's hard to believe this great ship still likes to hurt people, even when it's a wreck. Good job Cruiser" Magnaruckus continued down a ramp that leads to floor level with the rest of the stationed Jiralhanae.

The chieftain's motives and care for his Brutes started to concern Jikartus, looking at the cyborg Shin, and the only emotion this evil creation can show is fear, for it just stares at his with a red mechanical eye slit. Tarscar's other eye though, was sheer black, which means this monster could only see with it's one red eye. The war chieftain shook his head, not planning to get a response from the cyborg.

"Sire, those soldiers were under your direct command and you just laugh after they get crushed with such force?" Jikartus walked down the ramp with a fuel rod on his back. Shin followed the dark golden chieftain down the ramp.

"Jikartus, they were weak and careless, you should know that yourself. A weak Brute is as good as any dead meat I know of" Mag responded, slightly shaking his body so that he could feel that the Fist of Rukt on his hairy backside.

Jikartus sighed and ran to catch up with his leader. It was becoming clear to him that Ruckus was becoming totally careless for his troops and if it continues, a lot more will die for the chieftain's own goals. Shin remained silent and ran Jikartus, both now a few feet away from Magnaruckus and coming up in front of the Brute battalion. Mag stopped in front of them, a few metres away from the first line of Jiralhanae. He stared at them, shifting eyes left and right to get a good look at all his troops, all wearing different ranked armour, ranging from the Minor class to the jet pack troops to even Stalkers and other War chieftains. A Brute captain at the very front was staring at the steel bar disaster, trying to look over the rest of them to see it. Maggie was displeased by this lack of discipline.

"You! face towards me fool!" The Brute leader barked, grabbing the captain's attention quite quickly and he jerked his face back to the front.

"Master, my blood brother was just over there, I must see if he's still alive" the captain begged, who had a Brute shot on his back.

"Then he was in idiot to be over there, the Cruiser punishes the careless and weak minded. Pay attention!" the chieftain growled the cobalt armoured captain. He lowered his head down, grieving for his loss. He looked back up to await the chieftain's next words.

"My people, as of right now, the situation has turned into a ramble. The ship is out of commission so now we must rejoin the main force at the plains. I was told recently that they were hit by the force of the blast wave, but no casualties or damaged vehicles was reported, so no harm done there" he began walking along the front of the packs with his hands still tied behind his back, staring at each individual Brute and looking over them to the ones behind the line in front. Jikartus and Shin remained where they were, watching their leader stomp along the floor upon which they stand on.

"The cause of the explosion was the wreckage of the Shadow of Intent. We believe that Thel and the black freak flyer, the one that did THIS TO ME," Mag pointed out the scar on his completely covered white eye, "Were at the ship before it exploded. Drektus and a few of his troops, as well as the Sangheili defector, were there at the time it exploded, and no data was sent to us regarding the creation of Assault Carriers. So unfortunately, the invasion of Sangehilios...will have to be aborted and disbanded" Magnaruckus frowned at this, disgusted by the fact there was no chance to attack where they lived now. A few sighs of relief was actually heard amongst the battalion, glad to hear that they can't attack the well guarded world now. Ruckus lifted his top lip, exposing a couple of his teeth, annoyed by those sighs.

"As I was saying, since the ship was completely destroyed, the invasion plans are ruined. Also, if you're having trouble trying to contact your relatives back on Doisac, no chance you'll probably hear them again. Radio contact with the homeworld and the Corvette fleet are broken. Now you can fully concentrate on this attack at the city with no trouble at all" he smiled, knowing that there are no connections to anyone back on their world. There was shock amongst the battalion.

"If any of you want to argue about this, you can talk to me about it...I'll rip your hearts out after our little talk, so don't confront me about it" Ruckus reached the end of the battalion and began to walk along it again, going straight to the other side, "The resistance is supposedly growing stronger as the day progresses, so time is of the essence if we are to annihilate them with ease. While I, Jikartus and our new Sangheili ally rejoin the main force, a few of you will be coming with us on the dropships. The rest of you are to stay here, get that BLOODY SCARAB OUT OF THE WALL," he pointed out to the giant walker that was head first into a wall near a hanger door, "And see if you can repair the ship to be ready for tomorrow. Whether it's above that city or not, tomorrow, each and every one of those wretched beasts and traitors will be eradicated by day's end. It will be the dawn of a new of reclamation my brethren...and I'm looking forward to it".

He stopped in the middle of Jikartus and Shin, untying his hands from his back and crossing his arms. There was talk amongst the platoon, deciding if this was a good plan or not. Suddenly, a cry of help came from steel bar ruins, sounding like an injured Jiralhanae. Each and every one of them shifted their heads to the left.

"Help...please!" it called out, begging to be aided.

"That's him! Blood brother, I'm com-" the cobalt captain was suddenly interrupted and stopped by the towering chieftain leader.

"No you're not whelpling, Jikartus, Tarscar, check it out" Mag ordered, just grabbing the captain by his right shoulder with his left hand. Jikky nodded and was the first to run towards the steel bar, passing the battalion.

The cyborg turned Shin hissed and ran in a less than natural Sangheili sprint, making a pressurised mechanical squeak each step it took. The dark golden war chieftain was the first to reach it, going around the bar to find the Brute dull golden captain, his body crushed from the waist down, red and blue blood rushed from under the bar. The war chieftain kneeled down and placed his right hand on the captain's chest armour, feeling greatly sorry for this poor Jiralhanae.

"Hang on my friend, I promise to get you out of there. Sir, he's alive, but this piece of crap has crushed his legs, shall I command a Phantom to move this wreckage?" he stood up and looked over the battalion, questioning Mag. The chieftain responded low bark, not giving a damn about this captain's life, but the blood brother interfered by his giving his own answer.

"Yes! Get him of there!" the captain tried to get to Jikartus, but Mag kept a strong grip on his shoulder.

"I have an idea. Shin, show these troops how the weak and injured must be treated, and how the hinder of their progress is stopped" he exposed an evil smile, which the cobalt captain did not like the look of it.

"Wha-what do you mean by that" he didn't like this, looking at the chieftain's frighting face.

Tarscar decreased his speed when it got to the steel bar, going around the same way Jikartus took. It pushed the war chieftain out of the way with force with its new mechanised arm. Shin stomped on the fatally wounded Brute's chest, crushing his ribs. A roar of pain escaped the captain's jaws but suddenly and horrifyingly, the cyborg Shin pulled its spiker from its left thigh leg and shoved the blades into the Brute's throat, ripping through his windpipe and his nerves that were inside his spine. Jikartus then watched in horror as Shin ripped the captain's head off from his neck, screeching as it held in the air a new trophy for itself, then Tarscar threw the head on the cold floor and crushed the cranium with its right foot, splattering the brain and destroying the skull. The bone cracking sounds tingled down the spine of every Jiralhanae in the hanger, but one Brute is a specific exception...and he was happy that the problem was solved.

The cobalt captain was breathless, dropping to his knees, having to watch his blood brother be slaughtered by the cyborg as it expressed its dominance over lesser beings. He was speechless, his jaw dropped to the point where he was unable to make his mouth more open. Jikartus was just as shocked, he promised that Brute he could be saved, but if he tried to stop Shin, he would've also ended up like that captain. Maybe even worse if he tried to fight it. The Brute captain stared up at his superior, angered welled up in the Jiralhanae. Mag was not intimidated by such a smaller individual.

"Don't give me that look, your blood brother was interfering with our progress, but at least he died for the cause...Shin's new killing abilities are indeed excellent for the cause" Mag chuckled inside his mouth, not having one shred of respect for the Brute that died.

The captain clenched his fists, stood up, facing away from the chieftain. The anger kept continuing to heat up, his body shook like he was about blow like a volcano. He wanted revenge for what Magnaruckus has done, for what he has created. He raised his right fist and shifted his entire mass around, aiming to punch Magnaruckus for this outrage.

"I MUST HAVE VENGEANCE! RARRGGH!" he roared in a cry of grief and fury, but it all went to waste when Mag grabbed his fist. The Brute's enraged face of anger suddenly morphed into a terrified expression, unable to slip his hand away from the chieftain's tight grasp. He tightened his grip around the captain's hand, so tight that the Brute dropped onto one knee and begged his superior to let go. Was he really going to be let off that easy?

"Agh! Argh, let me go, I surrender sire!" the captain pleaded, looking up to him with the most sorry of expressions, but Maggy put a small smile on his face, still not willing to let go, instead, he furthered tightened his grip and a bone cracking noise could be heard closely, coming from inside the Brute's arm.

"You were provoking me with a violent act just 5 seconds ago and now you want me to let go?" the chieftain exposed his limb ripping teeth with such an vicious smirk.

"Release me damn you!". Mag thought for a second, thinking of another way then just releasing him. He looked back down at his brave but foolish opponent.

"Ok then" he shrugged his shoulders, then ripped half of the captain's arm off, taking a right hand and wrist with him. The cobalt captain screamed horrifyingly, letting the entire hanger hear his thunderous roar of pain. He crawled away from the massive Jiralhanae leader, trying to cover his heavily bleeding arm against his stomach to keep pressure on it, but his fate was decided already by his leader, and Magnaruckus reached out for the Fist of Rukt, throwing away the Brute's hand at its owner.

"Take a stand, have a hand captain. I dearly hope you can fly" he aimed the head of the Rukt at the disabled captain. An energetic glow appeared around it, powering its most special gift, hand crafted by Tartarus himself. The captain's eyes widened and shrieked as he was lifted into the air, controlled and gravitated by the chieftain's most powerful weapon. It was time to put its new powers to the test.

"Finally, a little practice. Shin, if you catch this Brute with your sword, you can have it as your lunch for today" he called out to his cyborg companion, grabbing its attention and taking the sword handle from its right thigh and awaited for its meal. With a single jolt of movement with his arms, Magnaruckus's own touch caused a reaction within the hammer and sent a flying, as well as a screaming, Jiralhanae captain Shin's way, with the entire battalion watching in awe.

The Brute's agonising roars ended with him impaling through Tarscar's suddenly active energy blade of death, his entire body went limp. His arms dropped and his legs and no more muscle tension as he instantly died a horrible death. No signs of sorrow or grief went though the chieftain or any of the battalion, but Jikartus tried to not look at the half organic machine killing one of his own brethren. It didn't seem right to him, executing 2 of their kind was not normal in their culture. To him, this wasn't war, this was just plain murder, pure and simple.

"Good Sangheili, you can eat your food on the Phantom" Magnaruckus slid his hammer onto his back, happy that this whole thing over and done with, and now he could continue with his speech to the battalion, turning to the huge numbers of overgrown apes.

"If any of you ever pull anything like that foolish captain right there, you will become that mechanical beast's next meal...he still has organic parts, remember that one my brothers" Magnaruckus smiled and watched a dropship use its grav beam to hoist Shin and the dead Brute up. It also collected the soul broken Jikartus, having enough of this pointless bloodshed. The other 2 dropships started to collect small squads of Stalkers and Minor classed Jiralhanae to follow the chieftain's dropship with. The lead Phantom hovered over Mag, ready to depart to the main force, but not before he said one final sentence to the battalion.

"Tomorrow will still be a day to remember my brothers...we will rejoice happily after this one important battle".

With Magnaruckus onboard, the lead dropship hovered above the dispersing battalion, closely followed by the other 2 well armed and well armoured Phantoms, leaving the unshielded hanger. They increased speed, clearing the smoke and ascended to great heights above the wreckage, moving to rejoin the large force that has assembled to destroy the city and every one of its inhabitants.

In the city, the crowds were slowly starting to ease. Arbiter, Cynder and Spyro left the infirmary, surrounded by dozens and dozens of moles, the citizens of Warfang, the victims of the Brute's attack force. Yapflop and Jabjab have reunited with their enormous Lekgolo companions, happy to be under their protection. Darst, Hunter and Sparx were also with them, as well as Tesk and the other Sangheili survivors of the Shadow of Intent. Together, they were all one powerful force, and the only sane group of the crowds. Ventor though, hid in a dark alley way, watching Thel's every move. The moles weren't enough to block his view, so he had one of the best spots to identify every individual he could see. Arbiter, Spyro and Cynder looked around at the nervous, chattering moles.

"I think everyone in Warfang is here at this square..." Cynder whispered, trying to keep a straight face and keeping her wings folded in.

"I don't blame them for it either, we gave them quite a scare when we arrived in a Brute dropship" Thel also shared his own whispers, every jerk of his neck made him stare at hundreds of furballs, arguing, panicking. A sudden voice was heard behind them, coming from inside the tent.

"Arbiter, there you are!" Clin exclaimed, "I was waiting for you down at the end of the hall and you didn't come in! Please, I must tend to your own injuries" the mole doctor was waiting for Thel the entire time, but he was too busy trying to help Spyro's life. The Sangheili refused, a most unwise decision.

"No, I need to tell everyone what's happened. They deserve to know" Vadam was quite desperate to reveal what has happened since last night. The young dragons looked at each other, agreeing with the doctor's assistance to help their tall friend.

"Arbiter, it's best to get it over and done with now, you're still bleeding" Spyro was urging Arby to have his wounds treated, but to no effort did Thel agree. Arbiter did feel a stroke of pain in his chest, most likely it's a reaction from his broken ribs. He held onto his chest with both of his arms, lowering himself to the ground on his knees. Cynder suddenly got worried.

"Get back into that medical room Thel, your life is more important than just answers to what happened last night" she threw her left wing over his back, but he shook it off himself with his arm, not needing comfort from the dragoness. She slowly backed away from Vadam, noticing that was a violent reaction.

"Don't do that Cynder...Clin, I'll be there when I've completed this very important task" he snarled at the doctor, making him back off into the tent. Without argument, he nodded and let Thel be, but he was shocked that Arbiter did made that feral sound to him. The dragoness did not appreciate what he just did to the poor mole.

"You dare to that to anyone else again and I'll make sure you definitely go back into that hospital with that helmet shoved down your throat" she threatened him, not happy with this sudden attitude. He only huffed with annoyance as a response. Another mole appeared from within the crowds, a soldier wearing metallic black armour that covered most of his fur, the only that was exposed was his face. He waddled up in front of Spyro.

"Ah, purple savior, thank the ancestors you're still alive and among us. I've noticed that you're still wearing that armour, would like me to take it and repair it for you?" the noble warrior asked the purple dragon, with a polite and kind voice. He just remembered that he was still wearing and boy, did it need a good repair indeed. Unfortunately, he also noticed that the bandages Thel gave him were holding in his stomach and parts of the armour.

"Well, I could but this thing, it's holding my armour as well as my injury. As soon as I feel better, I'll tell y-" Spyro was interrupted by the sound of Thel's one energy dagger cutting across his armour and slashing the bandage right off him. If he was even more carless, he could've cut Spyro's scales. This absolutely frightened the young fighter, he wasn't ready for another slash by a dagger.

"Hey, watch it!" he snapped. Vadam deactivated the dagger and paid no attention what Spyro said. Cynder was progressively getting disgusted by this behaviour.

"He should be feeling better right about now, take his armour and fix it. The helmet is inside the Phantom, the grav lift is on...go and grab it why don't you?" Thel stood back up, attempting to resist any pain that hits him deep inside his battered body. The mole shrugged his shoulders and detach the buckles and buttons that connected to the purple savior's armour, taking off the dented chest armour, the scratched tail pieces and the holes in some of the other areas. As heavy as it was, the mole could handle it all on his own.

"Thank you my friend, I'll grab the helmet as soon as I get these to the blacksmith" the defender of Warfang kindly appreciated getting it back. Spyro smiled and bowed to the mole, as a thank you for doing this task. He wasn't done yet though, as the black armoured warrior turned to Cynder.

"Oh and miss, we've just finished crafting your armour just last night, I think you'll find a most appropriate fit and still look fantastic in it" he smiled. Cyn was quite surprised by this but one tiny little important question came to her.

"Will it give me as much protection as Spyro's does? You know, a chest armour, some tail ones, back protection, the more scale protective kind?" she was referring to when she wore armour during near the end of war with the dark master, and the only kind she could find was helmets, bracelets and base tail armour, and that wasn't enough to protect herself with.

"Well of course ma'am, much better than what you wore back in those days" he confirmed her question with positive results. She was relieved to hear it.

"That's good, because I got an arrow that struck near my heart. If that orc was a better shot, I would've died by a single, pathetic arrow...that would've been embarrassing" she scratched between the horns on her head with her left scythe wing tip to get rid of an itch she had. Spyro smiled and walked on gracefully over to her and nuzzled along her left cheek. She released a small sigh of comfort.

"I'm glad it didn't come to that then...I wouldn't have been able to live without you" he whispered to her.

"That makes 2 of us then...(sigh)" she quietly replied back to him, letting him continue his harmless little assault on her face. The mole smiled and decided to leave them alone, heading back to the blacksmith and get on with repairs.

As he kept on nuzzling her, he slowly proceeded to affectionately lick her face, which Cyn always enjoyed from him. But just she really got comfortable, the dragoness notices Thel was not in front of her anymore. She shifted around her position to look for the Sangheili, causing Spyro to stop his licking, retracting his tongue and raising his left brow.

"What's wrong?".

"Arbiter's gone! where has that stubborn elite sprinted off to now?" Cynder kept looking over the crowds of moles, even getting Spyro to also look around, but a loud voice clearly gave them an idea of where he was.

"Inhabitants of this great city and my galactic allies! I ask you to come forward if you would like to hear what has happened since the past night" Thel was standing on a large stone platform, overlooking most of the crowd. Darst's group instantly turned their attention towards the Arbiter, as well as the 2 guardians did. They were at the back of the crowds, but they could clearly see the Sangheili, waiting for what he has to say. Volteer was here, arriving a few minutes ago, and was ready as everyone else that wanted to hear this story. Ventor listened from the dark alleyway, awaiting to hear the lies come of Thel. Cynder growled lowly, angered that he went all by himself was he's badly injured.

"What's he doing up there?" she asked herself. Spyro took her with him so they could get to the front of these moles.

**Sorry if the story didn't really progress much in this chapter, I know some of you are hating me for it, but I'm not superman, I get exhausted from each day, really can't wait for the Christmas holidays, yay! Also, you don't have to review on this chapter, because I got to a huge number of reviews that almost got me to 70, so it's very optional to review this one. The next one would probably involve some memorable speech or something from Arby so, the next one may take time. It would probably be like that Bill Pullman speech from Independence day or something epic like that. Till another time, have a nice day**


	44. The night explained

Arbiter, beaten up and battered by a creature that was much taller and stronger than him, stood alone on a stone platform, its top covered wooden boards. It stood a couple of feet off the ground, but that was enough to allow him overlook the entire crowd that gathered around him. Darst and the others were at in the middle, against a nearby building with the guardians way at the back. Spyro and Cynder behind at least 2 dozens of moles before reaching Thel, but they couldn't get any further than where they were now.

"Move it! (sigh) we ain't getting any further than here, that's just great!" Cynder grumbled with a low voice, barely high enough for Spyro to hear.

"Couldn't we just fly over them" Spyro thought, thinking it was better than just to use their wings. Cynder looked behind, observing hundreds of eyes looking up to Thel.

"Err, I don't like to draw too much attention Spyro...I get a little nervous with this many bystanders" she lowered her head down like a frightened hatchling. She hated when thousands of eyes laid upon her, it only made things a bit disturbing and uncomfortable. The purple dragon also noticed how large the mole groups were and he understood Cynder's small fear when it comes to attention. A dark being of herself wasn't the only thing her corrupted side left behind.

"I thought you wanted to be up there with him?". Cynder dragged her eyes left and right, "I'm having second thoughts..."

He smiled and draped a wing over her back, giving her some sense of security, "It's ok, we can just stay here, see what he's got to say" and with that, he looked up to Thel. The dragoness too held her head up to watch how Thel unfolds everything.

"Arbiter, what happened ever since you left Warfang?" a mole called out from the crowd. Thel shifted his sights all over the crowds, for it was now time. He expanded his lungs by taking up all the air he could and let it all out in without hesitation.

"Last night, myself, Spyro, Shin, Yapflop and Jabjab departed from the city to look for Cynder. She ran away because...I..." it was his first sentence and he's already been hindered by the memory. Observing the crowd, he noticed Cyn wasn't far away from his position, but when he needed an explanation to why she ran away, he didn't want to say anything that could hurt her feelings. Looking around with a dozen moles surrounding her, she nodded at Thel, signalling to tell them the truth about why she left. He still didn't speak the truth.

"I...I made her upset, by getting her to remember her past, telling her that she killed millions...she couldn't take any more of it and so she flew away from Warfang...leaving everyone knew and endangering herself because of me" he lied about it. Instead of telling them that she brought it up herself, Arbiter put the blame upon himself, saving the dragoness from a heap of trouble of trouble with the guardians. A long, deep but disappointed escaped her lips, Cynder knew that what he did was wrong, that he shouldn't have lied about it. Terrador narrowed his eyes down, taking the lie and wanting to teach Thel a lesson to not talk about Cynder's past.

"It was then that Spyro decided that he wanted to find and bring the dragoness back. I insisted it on coming. I knew it was my fault and I needed to redeem myself. Fortunately, we weren't alone. The two courageous Unggoy and my valiant honourable friend Shin also wanted to help. We truly appreciated it and Darst, the one that you may recall burning down your Library and built it back up again" Kino rolled his eyes, "gifted us with specialised upgraded weapons. We thanked him and finally, we departed Warfang in search for the black beauty of nature" he smiled at Cyn. She had a small blush in embarrassment. Spyro got a small chuckle from her reaction to Thel's complement. He wasn't the only one to get teased by their Sangheili friend.

"We had to travel far, but we hastened our pace. Every second we wasted was another second that counted towards the dragoness being in full danger. It was a long and arduous journey, eventually leading us to a forest. Spyro knew where Cynder was because...well he just knew" Thel lied again, this time about Spyro's sense of smelling Cynder's heat pheromones.

Slightly ashamed, Spyro bowed his head down, twitching his eyes over to the dragoness. She knew what he was embarrassed about and she didn't blame him. It was her body that was producing those intoxicating smells and she took full blame for it, but she didn't have a choice. Her body was slowly just becoming ready and she couldn't avert that. Spyro tried to forget about it, putting his mind towards Thel's revelations, as did the dragoness.

"Where Spyro led us to was a meadow in the centre of this forest. It was there where Cynder was, but we were too late. The Brutes got to her first and Magnaruckus confronted her, throwing her down on the ground like if she was rubbish to them. It angered Spyro and unfortunately...the darkness overtook him" Vadam frowned at that last sentence, remembering the evil that was around Spyro. It frightened even him.

The crowds gasped, total shock overcame them all. Their purple savior still had the darkness that dwelled within him. The moles that surrounded him and Cynder shifted away from them, shoving each other to stay away from the dragon that saved their furry behinds. Spyro covered his head with his wings. He didn't want everyone to know that even after Malefor's defeat, the evil spirit was still there and now, he couldn't bear the crowd's sudden animosity towards him.

Cynder draped a wing over her beloved purple dragon. She was afraid for him, knowing what it's like to have a dark side stay inside, even after all this time. Even if he still had the evil inside of him, she's still not willing to leave him for the crowd's hatred. She'll join him if it means being the most hated dragons in the city. Terrador shook his head, it was unbelievable to him and the other guardians that Spyro still had it. He just hopes that Cynder also doesn't have hers.

Darst and the others were quite surprised by this, except the Grunts, they also witnessed it. Hunter let out a long deep sigh, feeling terribly sorry for both of the dragons. What would their future be like now with Malefor's evil still haunting them? Ventor huffed in complete amusement.

"So the black one isn't the only one. The Jiralhanae just love to anger these two and the end, they just suffer. Reminds me of Shenko's death" he smiled. He was quite happy with the traitor gone. He trailed back onto Thel's explanation.

"Everyone! It wasn't his fault that this has happened, please let it go until I'm finished" Thel demanded the entire crowd to continue listening to him, but a heavy, thundering voice spoke out to Spyro.

"Pardon me for this Arbiter, but Spyro, we need to talk. And Cynder, if this also happened to you, then I want the both of you to meet me in the Atrium...immediately after this" the green earth guardian requested the both of them, regarding their dark abilities. They both bowed their heads in shame and disgrace. Arby could and shake his head and wish the best of luck for the both of them.

"As I was saying, while Spyro dealt with Magnaruckus, Shin, I and the Grunts battled the Brutes. For the most part, it went well. They were not much of a threat in small numbers, especially when we wielded much powerful weapons, cutting them down into a very small force. I believe the dark purple dragon was able to destroy 2 Phantoms out of 3, but afterwards, the darkness wore thin when he noticed Cynder was alive. I think I was able to witness Mag come back to deal some punishment to Spyro, but Cynder decided to play hero and attack gigantic Brute. I must admit, given both their sizes compared to him, they pulled off a valiant effort, even Cyn took out one of his eyes".

Awe then overcame the mole crowd. They would never be brave or encouraged enough to take on Magnaruckus single handedly. Both Spyro and Cynder looked up from their shame and noticed they got some applaud from the formerly angry crowd. Vadam was relieved to know that at least they weren't solid enemies of the city.

"Indeed they deserve some respect. They both put up a good fight against the largest Jiralhanae I've ever witnessed. When Magnaruckus was disabled, we had to leave the meadow, and so little Yapflop hijacked a Brute dropship, the very same one that now rests just near the infirmary" Thel pointed out to the dropship that sat there, waiting until it was called for. The crowds turned in awe of the Jiralhanae dropship. It was another asset to use against their invading enemies.

"But I'm afraid...this is where the absence of Shin Tarscar, my friend...Darst's friend, comes into this" Thel lowered his head. Darst stepped forward, desiring to hear this.

"As we escaped to the dropship, Tarscar was providing cover fire, holding off the Jiralhanae attack whilst we boarded the Phantom. This left vulnerable, none of us were able to cover him...he was shot...by a Brute spike rifle. One of those beasts got him" Thel stood alone as two tears escaped his eyes, the sorrow, the guilt overcame him. There was nothing he could do for the courageous elite who sacrificed himself so Thel and the others could get to safety.

"When the first spike stabbed him, another impaled him. Then another one...soon, the surviving Brutes shot him to death. No mercy was brought to Shin. I...we...watched him die a horrifying death. With his last breath, he told us to go, to leave the meadows before the Brutes were able to get us...we left our friend behind to die by Mag's forces. I still have to live with this thought".

The moles were soul stricken. They couldn't believe a well known elite of Warfang had died last night. It was, to all of them, very hard to believe. Yapflop and Jabjab both bowed their down, respecting their leader of their little group. Cynder rested her head against Spyro's shoulder, needing to be comforted through this sad time. She was missing Tarscar again. She regretted leaving him behind, and believing it was her fault that his death was created. Terrador, Cyril and Volteer all bowed their heads in respect and honoured the brave Sangheili. A navigator turned warrior by being stranded, but cared for, on this planet.

Darst though, was the most heart stricken out of everyone. Both of his hands trembled, like an earthquake that shook his entire nerve system. He stared at them, each of his fingers wanted to tear a Brute in half, wanting to exact complete and total vengeance for this daring move made by Magnaruckus's troops. Kino wanted Jiralhanae blood to be spilt on the unclean ground for this recent outrage. He wanted it now. The only thing that took him off of this was Thel's soul depressing explanation.

"After escaping that terrifying battle, We all felt the remorse in each and every one of us. I'm afraid that no matter who we'd lose, getting Cynder back was still our top priority and we knew the risks, especially Shin. He died with honour Darst...and I promise his won't go down in vain" Thel kept his word. Darst didn't smile, let alone respond positively, but he gave a less than happy nod of his head.

"We share your loss Thel Vadam. May he rest with everyone else who has died in battle against the Brutes" Cyril shared his and the other guardians respect towards this tragic disaster.

"He shall Cyril...he shall. In any case, we left the meadows, leaving those murderers behind, leaving Shin behind. We were making our way back to Warfang. We could've been back much earlier, but we flew over the Shadow of Intent. The very same ship I commanded...the very same one Rtas commanded. The Brutes didn't get rid of her completely".

"The Shadow? She's still there?" Darst called out, surprised about this revealing. Thel's frown covered his face.

"Not anymore Darst. Nothing would be left of now" Thel looked at the gigantic wall behind him, with a few bricked buildings in front of it. The dark blue smoke of the explosion was still there, slowly dissipating. Everyone then knew where the explosion came from.

"You blew her up? YOU BLEW UP THE SHIP THAT SURVIVED THE BATTLE OF THE ARK? THEL, SHE WAS ALREADY A BROKEN VESSEL WHEN SHE CRASHED, THE VERY LEAST WE COULD DO IS LET HER BE AT PEACE, BUT NOW YOU CAUSE THE WHOLE THING TO EXPLODE?" Kino was enraged at the Arbiter for blowing up the Shadow of Intent, but he had reasons for doing it.

"Darst, please let me finish. We decided that we should salvage as much as we could from the Shadow, we landed inside. Yapflop took the dropship to the hanger while Cynder accompanied me to the bridge where the power could reactivated at. It was then along this small journey through the overshadowed ship we found these Sangheili. They too survived the crash, but unlike us, they were hiding inside the ship. We met Tesk, Ventor and a Spec ops named Ras'skar Shenko. Ventor and Tesk were good like the other Sangheili behind you, even if Tesk did accidently shoot me with a needler, but Shenko...he was suspicious that time. From then, it only got worse with him" Thel then started reliving the memories of meeting the Sangheili survivors in that crew quarters lounge. It angered him when he remembered that traitor bearing the blue Spec ops armour. He wanted revenge for what he'd done, but Cynder got to Shenko before Thel could even scar him.

Kino looked back at the Sangheili behind him, including Tesk. Cynder looked to her left, spotting Ventor by the dark alleyway, where the moles hardly crowded up. He clicked his mandibles, signalling Cynder not to look at him. The dragoness jerked her head back to Thel, definitely not in the mood to anger a Sangheili captain today.

"I made them go to the hanger while we dealt with the power. When we finally got to the bridge...we stumbled upon the mutilated bodies of the crew. Everyone who died in the crash or was found by the Brutes has been...skinned or beaten up to death. A few also had bite marks on them, made by the Brutes themselves. They actually ate our dead".

Spyro felt like he was going to throw up, exactly like Cynder did when she stared at the dead elites.

"That's just disgusting. Why would they do something like that?" the purple dragon was almost sickened that the Jiralhanae could do these things, if being a giant chieftain wasn't bad enough.

"Scare tactics Spyro, if any elite survivor would find the bodies, they'd lose hope in fighting Magnaruckus. I have not been frightened by a scare tactic, I won't let the mutilated bodies haunt my life. Though, one thing did startle me in that room" he turned to Cynder. She knew that Thel might be hurt by this part.

"Rtas Vadum. My closest friend and the most honourable Sangheili I've ever had to fight with. When we crashed here, I saw his body on the ground. I thought he was dead. I was wrong. He survived the crash, only to end up in the piles of mutilated bodied. Magnaruckus found him recording a message for anyone who'd find it. He was the most torn up of the crew members...and it...it was unbearable" Thel covered his face with his hands, making sure they didn't see the multiple tears that came out of his eyes.

The guardians shared Thel's sorrow, they knew what it's like to lose a friend to the enemy. It hurts you mentally, dropping reality on you like an anvil from the sky, absolutely devastating within the mind. It spreads throughout your body like a virus, breaking down every positive emotion. It does this to everyone. Cynder didn't want to see Thel like this again. She jumped onto the platform, leaving Spyro to stand by himself with a couple of moles. She went to stand alongside with the Arbiter, like she did at the Shadow. He uncovered his face, revealing the wet trails. When he turned to his left though, he was surprised that she came up here with him, even after the attitude he used against her 10 minutes ago.

"Cynder...".

"Remember this Thel; no matter who you are...no matter what you are...you are never alone in this universe. Don't let Rtas's death run your life. You've got others to stand with you, to fight with you against those beasts. I'm not the one who likes to get revenge all that often, but what the Brutes have done is unacceptable. They deserve to feel our tidal wave of fury upon them, each and every one of them will drown in its deep, dark depth. You and I will fight against Magnaruckus. He may be strong, but with our combined might, we'll make sure that Brute is sent into the bowels of the darkness...that's my promise to you" she smiled, standing tall and proud with the Sangheili Arbiter. His face then turned positive once again.

"I look forward to tomorrow then Cyn. May the pain and suffering end tomorrow" he looked forward, back towards the crowd. Spyro smiled at his black dragoness being up there with the Sangheili hero of the Great Schism. He knew whether she was with him or Arbiter, she was safe and that's all he wanted.

"Hmph, interspecies partnership, pathetic" Ventor despised all of this, staring at the dark wall across from him.

"Besides the recording of himself, telling both of us that he crawled to the bridge, Rtas said that the Brutes were planning to extract information about the creation of Assault Carriers from the plasma reactor, in doing so, they would create an invasion fleet to attack Sangehilios and the rest of the galaxy with, glassing after glassing every planet they would, leaving nothing bust wastelands upon the planet's surface. He ordered the destruction of the Shadow of Intent. He said we had to detonate the plasma reactor in order for the entire ship to be destroyed". Darst's eyes widened like round dish plates.

"That connects to every other reactor in the ship, no wonder the explosion was that big. Still, that wouldn't be enough to cause an explosion half the size of a small star explosion. How did it come to that?" the crimson zealot tilted his head, confused about why the blast was way more powerful than it should've been.

"I'll get to that part later. After the recording, I was able to switch the power back on. Most of the rooms that were intact after the crash were lit up again, most of the doors were open and the lifts were operational again. We both then went to the armoury to salvage any operational weapons, which are in the dropship by the way. But when we were in that gun piled room, I opened a case that had a small bomb in it. It was planted by the Brutes, which only meant one thing" Thel put up his left index finger.

"Those overgrown hairy apes were still in the ship" Prowlus called out from the cheetah tribe at the back of the crowd, nearest to the guardians.

"Exactly, which also meant we had to destroy the ship quickly" Cynder stepped forward. The moles talking amongst themselves regarding whether the destruction of the Shadow was right or wrong. It may have stopped the Brutes from gaining invaluable information on creating Assault Carriers, but the explosion has left a devastating wake of scarred earth, leaving miles of black ash and burnt ground.

"I had to go back to the dropship and acquire aid, while Cynder volunteered with Spyro and the Grunts to go with one of the Sangheili survivors to assist him in detonating the plasma reactor. I don't know what else happened during that time" Thel was stuck at the part just before battling Shenko and Drektus. Cynder stepped, about to fulfil her part.

"I'll fill in the gaps. We went down to the room and right there in front of us, the reactor was still fully intact. Kintra Skultoro, the elite we went with told us to stay by the lift while he walked up to it. But...these two Brutes came out of nowhere. They stabbed him with some kind of knife like weapon and chucked him into the reactor. I watched his body disintegrate into nothing but a skeleton. Oh, it was horrible" Cynder shook her down, absolutely frightened by what the Jiralhanae Stalkers did. Kino let out a feral growl, disgusted that the Brutes have killed another survivor of the crash.

"I fought that monster and I did do some damage to him, but then it had where it wanted. I was trapped and the Brute was going to shred me with the weapon that killed Kintra, but Spyro stopped him, saving me and burning the Jiralhanae into a smouldering pile of ash. This is exactly why he's the purple savior, (whispers) its why he's the only one I'll love" She turned to Spyro, her face looked so lovingly to him, being grateful that he's around to look after her, with the prime exception of Thel. He returned a polite smile to her as he gazed upon the black dragoness, admiring every part of her as she stood proudly with the Arbiter of the Sangheili. Cyn turned her attention back to the crowd and continued her little revealing of last night's events.

"But the other one, the other Brute, he was able to burn little Yapflop. We heard him screaming and we saw him being roasted alive, falling to the floor" she looked over the crowds and noticed little Yapflop next to the biggest Lekgolo. He looked hurt but it didn't seem to sting him. He has lost his methane tank which has allowed to move quicker than he ever has been before, even if his armour was a little torn up from the fire grenade. The moles looked at him and the former Covenant group looked down on him.

"Oh yea, it really set me on fire. See, burnt armour, missing back pack, burnt skin, OW! I wish I didn't do that..." Yapflop touched the burn on his left arm, which regretted doing afterwards.

"We might need to get that sorted out Yappo" Jabjab stared at the black scar burns around his exposed body areas, also giving him a cute little nickname. Everyone turned their attention back to Cynder.

"Jabjab tried to stop the Brute by using that little green and blue thing Yapflop brought. It fired some green energy from within and when it hit...it just made all the Brute's armour fall off him, which was a little disturbing".

"Hey, normal shots only singe the skin but not much else, I had to do something" Jabjab called out. Thel smirked and shook his head.

"(Sigh) Still, it did leave him vulnerable to what I had done to that beast. I put my tail into him and pulled out it of his stomach, taking the guts inside of him out and onto the floor. It made me sick at first, but would that Jiralhanae had done the same to me if I let him have the chance?" she looked over to the Sangheili.

"Of course the vile savage would, and you should be proud that you have killed some of our enemies, it honours us and we pay you our respect, Cynder and Spyro, for destroying them. I speak for all the elites in this city that you two shall go down into our history books as another race to fight the Jiralhanae. Like Thel and Rtas, you demonstrated heroic actions against the enemy, showing that even in small stature, you can still fight with honour, courage and bravery. If you are to die, you shall be long remembered dragons, for all eternity!" Darst spoke out loud and clearly, letting the entire city know of the new faces of the Sangheili history. The young dragons were surprised about this, they never knew that they would end up in another species history books, let alone it is one of the most powerful races in the galaxy to give them this prestigious honour.

"That is if we ever find a way home and tell our leaders about them Darst. That is also if we survive tomorrow's battle with Magnaruckus and his army. But when we do get home, I want to tell our entire race about the traitor of our people. The one who had defected to the Brutes even before crashing upon this planet" Thel narrowed his eyes down, crossing his arms and remembering that one elite who had made it all come down to this.

"Defector? WHO?" an enraged Kino shouted. Cynder took a deep breath and said his name.

"Ras'skar Shenko. The one we didn't fully trust from the start when we first met him". Silence overshadowed the crowd. Hunter was the first to break it.

"Shenko betrayed you?".

"He betrayed all of us Hunter. I was able to infiltrate into the plasma reactor room over hear him talk to them. Spyro and Cynder were protecting Yapflop and Jabjab from him and another Brute, a war chieftain named Drektus. He said that he made a pact with the Brutes. Magnaruckus said if Shenko sabotages the slip space drive and gives out the Shadow's course to home, the Brutes would hold off their attack on Sangehilios, which by the way was only comprised with the Assault Carrier and Battlecruiser, plus a few Corvettes. Our fleets would have annihilated them with ease, instead, Shenko had done the deal. That's why we couldn't use it to get to Sangehilios!" Thel stepped forward, revealing the traitor's deeds. All the elites were speechless, even Ventor didn't know what to say about it.

"This was all Shenko's fault? I knew every elite wasn't a do-gooder!" Sparx came out from behind the Lekgolos and hovered next to Spyro, a bit unhappy that all elites are not as friendly as one would think.

"For once, I agree with you lightbulb. Shenko revealed the ship's course and the Brute's were able to track it and intercept us. When we were above your world, that's when they struck. We never had a chance against them" Vadam agreed with the yellow dragonfly.

"He was hoping to get both the Sangheili and the Jiralhanae to negotiate a peace between each other, so that both races can resurface from the devastation of the war, but I knew the Brutes would just destroy Thel's people when those ships were built. Either way, Shenko turned on all of us, shooting both the Grunts with that concussion rifle thing. Jabjab survived mostly without a scratch, being knocked out, but Yapflop was already hurt enough after being burnt to a crisp and what Shenko shown towards him was ultimate cruelty. He was a merciless killer that replicates a Jiralhanae's motives. I hated him with all the blood and bone in my body" a fearsome growl escaped the black dragoness. She still couldn't get Ras'skar out of her formerly corrupted head.

"Grr, the bastard doomed us all, If he were here, I'd rip him shreds!" Darst mumbled, holding his hands together, itching to find and kill this Shenko. He listened even further to Cyn.

"While I was distracted by the sudden downfall of the Grunts, Spyro attacked Shenko while I wasn't looking, but the blasted elite...he grabbed him by the neck and shoved one of those daggers things in him. That's how he got a bleeding underbelly. When he threw Spyro on the ground...I thought I was losing him...I thought that he was going to die. I felt his very life force slipping away. It...it crushed me...then I didn't feel myself, I didn't feel normal...everything just blacked out, the last I remember from the ship was that part. I don't know what happened" Cyn couldn't remember a thing when her dark side took over. Thel grumbled inside of himself, knowing this is another bad part.

"I'm afraid I have bad news about that part Cynder. Your feeling of loss and sorrow turned sour, becoming the evil that you thought was lost. You were once again a nightmarish creature of the dark" Thel frowned upon this. He felt terrible revealing this and the guardians now knew that Dark Cynder was still within her. Her eyes widened in complete devastation. She never thought her dark side would take over again, but what surprised her the most is that her counterpart attack Shenko and not Thel or Spyro.

The guardians looked at each other and Volteer knew exactly what he had to say now, "Cynder, you and Spyro, Atrium after this. This is terrible, unbelievable, inconceivable! This can't be good for both of them" Volteer was losing hope for both of the dragon's futures. Their dark counterparts will not only stay with them forever, but will drastically affect each other's lives. Not just on the outside, but also on the inside.

"I don't know if this was good or not, but wither way, she annihilated Shenko with all her power. He didn't stand a chance against her. I only got glimpses of her fighting the traitor because the Brute was fighting me. He was strong, beating me to a bloody pulp as you see here, but I came out the victor against the Jiralhanae war chieftain" Thel said proudly. The elites cheered, roaring in glorious victory of a chieftain thanks to Arbiter.

"He told me he had family back on the Jiralhanae homeworld, but he made his choice and he suffered for it. Placing the prophet's lies in front of relatives is an outrage and he payed the price. I didn't feel good about it...nevertheless, he was part of Magnaruckus's force. Our brothers that had died in the crash have been avenged once more" his eyes narrowed down and he clenched his fists in anger. He was not going to stop avenging the crew until Magnaruckus himself falls before his mighty blade. He swore to stand by it until the task was complete. The Sangheili nodded. Ventor was slowly starting to become interested in Thel's rallying of the troops, taking a few steps out of the dark and coming into the light.

"In any case, after I defeated the war chieftain, Ventor brought some of the survivors to come help, but as soon as they joined, Cynder blasted Shenko into the plasma reactor with an energy beam of unparalleled power, obliterating both him and the reactor. That beam was the reason why the explosion of the Shadow was immense, bigger than what it should've been. After she finished killing the traitor, Cynder dropped on the floor unconscious, losing all that dark stuff and becoming herself again. I grabbed her while the other Sangheili grabbed Spyro and the Grunts. We escaped with the dropship, a Spectre, a Ghost, a Locust core, weapons, equipment and upgrades. We took it all from the Shadow and we flew far from the cataclysmic destruction...and that's it. That's what happened last night" Thel had finally finish the explanation, taking in a deep breath after exhausting both his lungs.

Silence once again took over the crowd, small distinct chatter went through them like a virus. Volteer and Cyril turned to Terrador in the middle of them, knowing what should be done with Spyro and Cynder's dark counterparts. They needed to have a private conversation in the Atrium...alone. Darst was still stricken by the loss of Shin, but still angered by Shenko's doings even if the traitor was dead. Spyro looked at Cynder, hoping she was ok about her dark form taking over and killing Shenko. It didn't scare her, it absolutely terrified her. She didn't know what's going to happen to her now.

Meanwhile, flying above one of the destroyed forests that were affected by the blast, Magnaruckus in up front with the pilot of the Phantom in front of their small air convoy. He was listening in to the ground troops of the main force, saying they have a problem.

"What do you mean there are creatures almost our size that are blocking your way, what are they? what do they want?" Magnaruckus growled into the plasma transceiver, unhappy that another problem has caught up to them.

"They won't tell us sir, we tried to bluff them into using force because we are saving all our ammo for the city, but they didn't take it. They keep telling us to leave, but if we go around them, it will take days before we even find another route to the freak flyer capital. We need you here now sire" a Brute minor replied back, unsure of what to do.

"Grr, pilot, we're close to them. Open the right side doors. Jiralhanae, stand by, we're almost there" Mag ordered.

"Yes sir" the minor put the transceiver into the Wraith.

He stared back at the few dozen apes that were blocking the main force of Wraiths, , Prowlers, Choppers and Ghosts. The Banshees flew overhead, some even flying towards the three incoming Phantoms as escort. Mag's lead dropship opened the side doors, revealing the chieftain himself. He looked down in surprise. These large creatures seem a bit more primitive than the Brutes themselves, but more freakish and ugly looking. They were not planning to waste ammo unless ordered so by their leader. Magnaruckus decided to call out to the ape in front, which beared a large but deeply customized red and blue mask to cover his face with.

"Beasts of this planet, I am chieftain Magnaruckus, proud leader of the main Jiralhanae force. I order you filthy creatures to move out of the way of our vehicles. Do it, or we will annihilate you!" the Brute leader threatened the ape leader in a deathly tone.

"No, you make big explosion destroy land around us, you die like the Dragons we murder, we kill you before you even move!" the ape leader roared. Mag was about to order the rain of death, but a few words caught his attention.

"Wait a minute, murder Dragons? the freak flyers?" Magnaruckus completely dropped his threatening tone.

"Uh, if chieftain Magnaruckus means Dragons, yes...why does Magnaruckus say this?" the ape seemed surprise by the name the Brutes call the dragons. Mag clenched his fists together and rubbed them in such delight manner, having a brilliant idea in mind.

"Because my friend, I have an offer you won't deny...ha ha ha ha (breathes in) HA HA HA HA HA!".

**This doesn't look good, does it. Thank you for waiting patiently, this chapter took longer than it was supposed to, my bad. Still, this was a neatly written chapter so the waiting must've been worth it. Since I have reached 71 reviews, my next is to get 100 reviews before the story ends. If I get there, I will be ever so happy! Also, check half daemon spartan's account on devaintart. His name on there is called b-312, and he has multiple pictures of Arby in Cyn in there, as well a couple with Darst, Shin and a couple of other OCs of mine. If you have the time, check it out, they look awesome. As always, have an nice day and if you send me spam then I WILL EAT YOUR FAMILIES!...just kiddin, I had to say somethin stupid sometime, lol**


	45. The new oath

The Apes were questioning each other, regarding an alliance with the Brutes to help them with destroying the city and all its inhabitants. They wanted to destroy the dragons while Magnaruckus and his Jiralhanae wanted to annihilate Arbiter and the other elites inside the stone walls. It could create a mutual partnership between the two savage races and they could both finally get the vengeance they have been waiting for.

"Let me get this straight chieftain Magnaruckus, you want our small force to partake in your invasion against the dragon city?" the masked ape leader questioned the Brute leader of this alliance.

"Of course I am, it will benefit both our forces. You may have a small group but, with a little help from our Phantoms, we can transport you to the city and aid you in destroying the dragons. If the attack is successful, we might have long term cooperation" Mag stepped closer to the ape clan, having full confidence that these creatures will rid of Spyro and Cynder and maybe even taking out the guardians.

"Huh, maybe we can, WAIT A MINUTE! What's in it for us?" the ape growled. The chieftain raised lowered his brow and raised his right one.

"What do you mean what's in it for you? We're offering you a chance at killing the freak flyers once and for all my fiendish friend" Maggie smiled, tying his hands behind his back.

"You destroyed forest, our shelter from danger! We want our part of bargain in this Magnaruckus!" the masked leader could not speak proper English, but the great Brute zealot of the former Covenant could still understand this masked figure of all power but no brains.

A respectful chuckle escaped the chieftain's bone breaking jaws, "Alright then, you eliminate the freak flyers named Cynder and Spyro, you come back, we help you build an entire army to not only rule this planet, but the galaxy...sound good uh...whatever your name is" Magnaruckus now needed this ape leader's name now.

"Wraul! My name is Wraul and I'm the official leader of this clan. I have not named it yet but we are the best clan of warriors on this land, no one can match our skills!" Wraul growled proudly, thumping his chest with his left arm. Magnaruckus made a fake yawn, not caring what Wraul shouted out. Jikartus, who jumped of the Phantom during the negotiations, noticed the little care his master had for this ape clan. The Cyborg Shin who stood on the open side door of Mag's Phantom had arms crossed, lifting his top right mandible and exposing his sharp, metal teeth that reflected some light off the burning sun. It didn't like this huge, hairy beasts for some reason.

Magnaruckus decided to cut this all short, "Uh huh, now stop impeding our progress, do we have a deal or not?" Magnaruckus never tolerates impatience.

Wraul looked back to the rest of the normal and average apes. From the looks on their faces, a decision has been made, "We accept this alliance with your race, assuming you stick with your part of bargain Magnaruckus. If you don't, I kill you, like I kill breakfast and dinner" Wraul threatened the beast that was 5 times his size, not worried that the chieftain will do anything drastic. Mag lifted his lip a bit, smiling as well as showing the teeth.

"Excellent...tonight, you and the rest of this clan of yours will attack and kill the two freak flyers. Failure is not an option. Do I make myself clear Wraul?" Mag grumbled.

"Yes, at service. I beg pardon sire, but why does chieftain want to kill dragons as much as we do?" Wraul wished to know why. He does not know the cause of Magnaruckus's ruined eye with the scar going down it. He untied his hands, only to clench them in furious rage as he looked down to onto the dusty ground.

He remembered grabbing Cynder from his torn up back, but she luckily was able to tear out his right eye, destroying half his line of sight. No Sangheili was ever able to accomplish such a task against a Brute at Mag's size, so he was excruciatingly and undoubtedly pissed off that Cynder was able to make it a reality. This was the sole reason why he wanted to rip her head off and squash her carcass, but now, maybe the apes would do that for him.

He pointed at his pure white and blinded eye and explained his reason to the enemies of the dragons, "You see this? the black freak flyer, the one they call 'Cynder' did this to me! I have been planning her demise for a while, but I see that all of you are fit for killing her now" Mag smiled. Wraul looked back at his clan.

"The former Terror of the Skies did this to you?" he asked.

"OF COURSE SH-wait...what did you call her?" Mag suddenly became intrigued of what the apes called Cynder.

"During our war with dragons and their allies, we kidnapped egg that turned out to be little baby female dragon. Our Dark master, who is now presumed dead, trained her in the ways of the darkness. He named her, corrupted her, slowly controlling her like he did with us. Overtime, she enlarged and became the Terror of the skies, the destroyer of all who opposed her, ...until that bloody purple one ruined everything, ridding darkness inside of her. You shouldn't be shocked that the former dark one has given you a life scar, she is not to be underestimated" Wraul warned Magnaruckus how dangerous the so called black freak flyer could be. He was actually a bit shocked to hear this.

He had been fighting a powerful creature this entire, a powerful minion of the darkness. It's not wonder why her mate, that's what Magnaruckus thought he was, was able to go ballistic upon him when Mag threw the dragoness down on the ground like a ragdoll. He had to be more cautious the next time he would see her, which was no doubt tomorrow.

"Hmm...I see. No matter, she will die along with the purple one. Also, if Arbiter interferes, kill him if you can. I've had enough of him slipping my grasp for the last time. He's a secondary target, but the freak flyers are the ones you have to eradicate first" Magnaruckus still kept this at a top priority. Wraul bowed to Magnaruckus and passed by him, followed by his loyal ape clan. Jikartus watched them go by. He didn't like this alliance with a small clan of apes that could easily be beaten up by the Sangheili and completely annihilated by the dragons. He ran up to Magnaruckus, having the need to talk to his leader.

"Magnaruckus, I beg my pardon, but why forge an alliance with creatures that are more barbaric than we'll ever be, they are too primitive to even trade technology with, let alone they haven't got any!" Jikartus declined the idea with accepting a truce between them and the apes. He thought that would be useless allies, but Mag came up with an idea from the start that will benefit him and his attack on the city.

"You're right Jikartus, that is why we're sending them in first. We can't waste precious resources fighting them, so why don't they do the dirty work for us. Whether they'll kill the freak flyers or not, this small scale attack will put pressure on them, enough for us to crush them with relative ease!" Mag held up his right hand and clenched it with a smug, evil smile on his face, confident the apes will hammer the Sangheili resistance forces.

Jikartus then pointed out a negative response, "And what if they can't even touch the freak flyers? what if they can't even hurt the Arbiter? or any of the elites for that matter" he didn't have much faith in these lower beings. The chieftain twitched his eyes left, not looking at Jikartus, but still he paid attention to him.

"These creatures fought with the dragon allies, I'm sure they can at least kill something. Never mind now, reorganise the pack and count how many troops and vehicles we got. Tonight the apes attack, tomorrow is our turn to be a part of the dawn of reckoning!" Magnaruckus declared, staring at his ultimate Brute army to annihilate everything with, just at the simple call of an order. This is a dire moment for forces of courage and honour.

In the great city of Warfang, the sun hanged over the bustling city crowd that has still gathered around a pillar, in which Arbiter and Cynder stood upon. Both the cunning and beautiful black Dragoness and the noble and honourable Sangheili warrior watched the mole crowd bicker over each other in regards to last night's events. Some of the elites were also having a conversation and even the guardians were talking to each other about these recent events. Slowly, arguments started overshadowing the chattering.

"We have to run away, those Brutes will kill us all!" a mole shouted out in the crowd.

Another replied, "If we do, the city will be destroyed! We'll be homeless. We must stand and fight!" a guard replied back to the mole who had lost faith already.

"IT'S THE END OF US ALL, THE BRUTES WILL CRUSH US UNDER THEIR BIG FEET AND MAKE US KISS THEIR BIG, DEMONY BUTS!" Yapflop cried. Jabjab slapped him in the back of the head for this discouraging behaviour.

"Are you trying to lower morale you idiot?" Darst growled at young Yapflop.

"What are we to do now?" Cyril jerked his head to the left at Terrador, but even the guardian of earth cannot come up with an answer of retaliation against the Brute threat. He left Cyril's question unanswered and continued to stare at Thel and Cyn from a distance. The crowds finally got to the dragoness's growingly annoyed mind.

"ENOUGH! JUST SHUT UP FOR A MINUTE! LET ARBITER SPEAK! BY THE ANSCESTORS, AT THE VERY LEAST SHOW DISCIPLINE!" Cynder's moderately high pitched voice grabbed everyone's eyes again.

Silence finally took back its rightful place and the only voice that now interfered it was Vadam's deep voice of honour. He gazed upon each individual, from the furry civilian mole to the colonies of worm creatures in armour. Everyone returned that gaze at him, as he stepped forward to the very edge of the pillar. Cynder watched him move his beaten up body that overlooked the crowds. She knew what was coming but she didn't know how the crowd will react when he has finished speaking. For Arbiter though, this was a proud and hopeful moment, and he wanted to share his confidence for tomorrow's battle. He took a long deep breath, feeling some hint of pain in his chest and spoke clearly without stutter or hesitation.

"Defenders and citizens of Warfang...Former warriors of the Covenant empire; each and every one of us here today, has come very far, from the start of the Human-Covenant war over five decades back to the Ark's destruction...From the rising of the Dark Master's reign of terror generations ago to the fall of his wrath at the paws of 2 young dragons. As of right now my friends, all of us demand one simple, specific request; Peace that can prosper throughout not just our homeworlds, but throughout the galaxy...where everyone can live normal, happy and merry lives, lives that cannot be touched by chaos and destruction" Thel spoke loud and proud, honouring his speech with total courage, strengthening everyone's resolve. Cynder couldn't believe how much effort he was putting into these noble sentences of justice. She still kept her stance of pride though, holding her head and chest up high, standing alongside with the Arbiter. Spyro couldn't be more proud of her, for what she became. He focused his full attention back to Thel.

"The Brutes though, the vile beasts that has committed genocide against all of our wills, does not uphold that peace. Magnaruckus, the bastard behind this horrible bloodshed, is out there, and he's coming here, with an entire army behind him to kill us all. He won't stop this utter destruction until we have all but fallen to his hammer, just because he thinks it's his destiny to wipe us off from the face of the entire universe. I promise you that he will not stop until that evil goal of his has come to pass...". The crowd was in awe, they were slowly finding the strength to stand up to the evil shadow known only as Magnaruckus. The Sangheili warriors themselves had never heard a speech spoken quite like this. It surprised them. Ventor had arms uncrossed, listening very carefully to each and every word that came out of Thel's opening.

"My people once sworn an oath when we were with the Covenant...On the blood of our fathers, on the blood of our sons, we swore to uphold the Covenant, even to our dying breath...No longer does that stick by us. Now, it is this: On the blood of our fathers and sons, on the blood of our friends and allies...we are sworn to protect the galaxy...not just from tyranny, oppression and persecution...but from annihilation. We are sworn to fight for our right to live...to survive" Everyone breathless, such an oath required the very soul of each individual, to defend the galaxy from the shadows of evil and darkness. Darst had a tear drop down his left eye, this speech broke his two hearts with honour and joy, smiling upon Thel. He would gladly give his life to uphold this new oath.

"Those words...those words should have a meaning to all of us. Tomorrow, as brothers and sisters...as friends and allies...we cannot be consumed by our petty differences no more. Tomorrow, we will shout in one voice we will not go quietly into the night! We will not perish without a fight! We're going to live one...We're going to survive. Tomorrow, we shall fight with all our might! MAY HONOUR GUIDE US TO VICTORY AGAINST THE JIRALHANAE!" Thel shouted and raised his right arm up high, a symbol of hope. The crowds quickly replied with cheers, clapping their hands, raising their weapons high in the air in total. They screamed, shouting out whoos of high morale. They all planned to follow Thel's lead, a lead that will send the Brutes in total devastation. They were ready for whatever that was thrown at them.

"AR-BIT-ER! AR-BIT-ER!" both Yapflop and Jabjab happily shouted in unison. They too were following the cheering of hope. The Hunters roared and fired their cannons in the air, confident that this was going to be a victory the Jiralhanae will never claim. The moles completely ignored to the two fuel cannon beams that were fired into the air. The Elites too roared with glory on their shoulders, raising their energy swords into the air. Darst though, held a golden sword, implying that he has upgraded his own weapons. Ventor fired a plasma rifle into the air, joining the fire with the fuel beam show.

The cheetahs, including Prowlus, fist pumped their spears and swords in the air as well, some had a few plasma weapons in their hands, rifles and needlers. Hunter had arms crossed, but a smile went across his face and nodded.

"That's the way to increase our chances of winning this battle..." he whispered. Sparx flew around the crowds, going with the flow of the cheering.

"YEAH! WHOOOO! WE'RE GOING TO BEAT UP THOSE BIG, FAT, GIANT FREAKS OF NATURE!" he yelled out to the entire crowd.

The guardians enjoyed the sight of the city's citizens, they had no doubt that this city has lost its will to fight and they are glad to be seeing that in front of them.

"Perhaps there is still some of that fighting spirit in them all" Cyril was quite shocked that all of them were cheering on a being from another planet. It surprised him that much.

"Incredible, unprecedented, unbelievable, I have never seen the city this willing to go into fire" Volteer had an open maw of joy. He couldn't get enough of this.

"Let us hope this is enough" Terrador murmured.

Cynder was far beyond happy for the Arbiter. Even for battered and bone ruined elite, he can still stand strong and tall, for he cared about the very survival about this city's inhabitants. She walked up to his right side, waving her tail around. He dropped his arm back to his side, panting from all the shouting he had created. He looked down to his side and looked at the dragoness's face. He saw the look on her face, happy, confident, joyful, yet nervous on the inside, but she didn't show that. She finally let her words out.

"That Thel Vadam...was greatly inspiring. I'm not looking forward to the battle tomorrow...but I'll go down into the bloodbath and slay as many of those monsters as possible. We can win this one, I'm sure" she kept her face from going negative, having a sweet, emotional voice to talk to Arbiter with. His mandibles turned into a smile.

"I'm glad to hear that Cynder. May the gods and the ancestors watch upon us by then" he said in a relaxing tone of voice.

"I'm sure they will be doing just that" she winked her left eye. Spyro jumped onto the pillar and ran over to Cynder's side. She jerked her around to see her purple savior come running alone.

"Thel, you actually got everyone in Warfang to follow alongside you for tomorrow. That's rarely happened in our entire history" an excited voice escaped the purple dragon, further increasing Thel's confidence of securing victory.

"Then this is quite a feat then. I am somewhat looking forward to tomorrow's results of how we fight against those Jiralhanae savages. I can't wait to see the full potential of you two in combat" he gazed at both of them. He knew there was more the two young dragon's had in their combat abilities, more than what they've shown recently. This put a proud smirk on both their faces. Suddenly, Thel fell onto one knee, grunting in pain from his wounds. This just reminded Cyn about Clin's offer to help Vadam.

"Hold on Arbiter! CLIN! WHERE ARE YOU?" she shouted out into the still cheering crowds. Suddenly, the mole doctor climbed himself up onto the pillar, running to assist his Sangheili patient. As small as he was, he went under Thel's arm to support him.

"I've got him now guys, I'll fix him up in a jiffy. As of right now, you two should make the most of today, because tomorrow, we're either all going to be alive or slap out dead. Make the most of your time young Spyro and Cynder, for tomorrow, there is going to be a slaughterhouse" he suggested to the dragons and went on to walk Thel back into the Infirmary to heal his wounds. They both left the dragons on top of the pillar, they watched as Warfang's new battle commander already go into hospital.

Spyro and Cynder turned to each other, gazing upon each other in their eyes. The purple savior lowered the top of his eye lids to give a charming look to his expression, and he knew what was coming. Cyn narrowed her eyes down, slowly pushing her head towards Spyro, she needed a little bit of love right now, taking up the doctor's advice. Unfortunately, Terrador yelled out to the young dragons from the back of the crowd, which stopped Cynder and made her pull her head back. They both turned to see the earth guardian at the very back, but they could clearly hear him.

"Spyro, Cynder...Atrium...now!" he was still focused on the darkness that dwelled within the both of them.

Their smiles then turned into a frown. They didn't know what was going to become of them. What was Terrador going to say? what was he going to do to them?

**Turn out repairs was just a quick battery replacement, sorry about the delay I recently posted. Oh well. This has to be my most well written chapter out of the lot, if that speech doesn't lift morale, I don't know what will. I hope this pumps people up for the final battle. Till next time though, have a wonderful Christmas holiday :D**


	46. Infertile

Inside the Grand Atrium, deep inside the labyrinth tower that suspends its height way above most of the buildings in Warfang, a large, wooden door opened to a large room that had some warm and easy to lay on carpet, with the colours of hazel and yellow that formed a rock like formation pattern, feeling like a pillow under your feet. Also inside this room was stacked books almost in every place but in the middle of the wall that faced the door was a chimney, with the fire burning brightly and sending the smoke to the flat top of this behemoth of a building. There was a particularly large table near the fire, having many scrolls, a few rolled up and two unrolled that laid on top of each other, sat on the levelled wooden desk.

Coming out from behind the door was Spyro and Cynder, followed in by Terrador who wanted to talk to them about their darker counterparts that were inside them. Whenever they fight an enemy that has done great injustice, it comes out of nowhere to take over their bodies and destroy the one who had committed the crime. It may seem like a good thing, but no one could tell what these evil shadows of darkness would do if that also wasn't its goal.

Sparx was just able to fly his glowing head inside the room and hovered between Spy and Cyn as they both laid their bellies onto the soft carpet. The black dragoness actually took notice and smiled, relieved to finally lay on something that wasn't an infirmary bed or the hard, cold floor of the Shadow of Intent.

Her smile went away though, when Terrador laid his mass on the carpet in front of them, looking down on both of the dragons. Spyro gulped, what did the Earth guardian have in mind? Long term punishment? Try and break his and Cynder's relationship up? Exile? Would Terrador actually go that far with these unexpected turn of events?

"Spyro, Cynder...how did this come to pass? Is it really what Arbiter says true?" the guardian wasn't smiling at either of them. He waited for an answer from the two 13 year old dragons. Cynder turned to her purple savior, and he looked at her back. Her face was telling him 'I don't want to talk about it...I'm too tired' and he could understand that after all they just went through. He thought of an answer and cocked his head back to Terrador.

"Yes, what Thel says is correct...we don't know why it's still within us and why it didn't disappear along with Malefor's defeat" a worried tone escaped Spyro's maw. He was still quite afraid of what the earth guardian will do. A long, weary sigh left the green hulk of a dragon.

"This is terrible. It should have disappeared along him, but instead, the shadows stay within you".

"Great...now I have to be careful around the both of you..." Sparx whispered

Cynder cut into the conversation, "Are we in trouble Terrador?" she was worried about a punishment. The green hazel dragon raised his left brow, wondering why Cyn brought the question to this subject.

"Of course not my dear, this isn't your fault young dragons, it's the Dark master's fault that you have been infected with these evil beings...is that why both of you were sketchy about coming to talk to me?" he was moderately surprised that they expected a punishment. Looking at each other then turning back to the guardian of earth, Spyro and Cynder both nodded their heads slowly. Terrador made a chuckle on the inside.

"Oh by the ancestors, you're not in trouble for something you did my young dragons, it's not your fault this has happened so suddenly. I only wanted to talk to you about the darkness that dwells within you. What did you think I was going to do?" he smiled cheerfully. Cynder felt so stupid all of a sudden, laying the bottom of her mouth of the floor and covering her eyes with both of her front paws. Spyro was speechless for a few seconds with widened eyes, looking around the room with a bit of embarrassment.

"Oh...well, we...um...we thought that you were going to make us leave the city or even break us up...now I feel like a real idiot" Spyro mumbled.

Terrador shook his head with a smirk, "I would never do such a thing like that Spyro, I don't know what goes through your mind but that is something an elder, not even a guardian, is allowed to do. Only a couple has the choice whether they want to break up or not, don't let anyone else tell you different. And exile? there are too many creatures out there that want our blood, exile is not even decided anymore, it's too dangerous for any of our citizens to go outside our walls" Terrador explained with certain ease.

Cynder uncovered herself from a pathetic, hatchling like position. Deep inside of her, she felt real dumb for even thinking about punishment for something that they never deserved. A change of thought made her ask something regarding their darker counterparts.

"Terrador, please answer me this truefully. How long does the evil inside us stay for, days? weeks? months? please don't give me a bad answer..." Cynder begged.

Terrador's happy gaze turned sour, "(Sigh), I don't know Cynder. For all I know, the dark spirits would last for years, maybe even decades...it's very likely it will stay with you for the rest of your lifespan I'm afraid".

Cynder lowered her head back on the carpet. Never she wanted to that reply come out of the guardian's mouth. Spyro didn't like it either, but he was more focused on the dragoness next to him.

"Are you ok Cynder?" her purple pride asked her, concerned for mostly Cyn over himself.

"Spyro...why can't we ever have normal lives. It's not fair, we get rid of him and yet we are still suffering from his wrath. Sure, we've only done at times against Magnaruckus's forces, but remember when we faced Malefor and he made attack you?" ever her tone of voice made her sound like she was going to drop the tears.

"But you came through Cyn, you fought through that power and regained control. Maybe you could try and do it again if it ever happens another time" Spyro suggested, but all the dragoness did was put the lower her entire head onto the carpet and laid there in self pity.

"I don't know, I heard your voice when he controlled me and that's what released me. With this, it's entirely new, I can only hear the voice of my dark counterpart. It scares me, but it tells me that it will only attack the one who unleashed evil within me. Shenko was the reason when he almost killed you. It was a retaliation. The darkness had the same feelings I had, only it has more power than myself...darn it! I can't explain all the details" she put her head back up Spyro's level, straining her ability to think.

He was shocked about the dark voice within her, he doesn't have anything like that, his counterpart just goes onto the attack, but is released at a certain point. Still, he moved his head forward to nuzzle around cheeks to calm her down.

"Don't stress yourself talking about it, relax. We're home now. Just think, if we get through tomorrow's battle, imagine what would happen in the years to come. Our little hatchlings, running around without a care in the world, just like you said back on the Shadow. Remember?" he gave a loving smile and continued to nuzzle around her cheeks. Her eyes widened, now recollecting what she said.

"Oh yeah, now that you remind me about it...(sigh), I know it'll be a while before then, but I can't wait to raise our little ones" she returned a smile and let Spyro continue his affectionate assault on her. A motherly instinct was slowly developing within her, though it's enough to get her worked up for her children, but it was an slow start. Terrador made a long, weary sigh.

"My young dragoness, I'm afraid that I have even more news that will greatly depress the both of you, and this will most certainly affect you Cynder...hold her close Spyro" Terrador was going to hate himself for saying this but it has to be done.

They both turned to each other, wondering what it was. Taking up Terrador's advice, Spyro pulled her much closer, coming up to the point of their bodies touching each other the side. He winded his tail around hers and placed his front right paw on top of her left one. They rested their heads against each other and braced for an inevitable truth.

"Cynder...since the darkness has dwelled within for a large amount of time, the chances of you being barren are greatly high" Terrador asked her. Cyn raised a brow, moving her head away from Spyro's, confused by that strange word.

"Barren? what does that mean?" she tilted her head left. Even Spyro didn't know what that meant. The earth guardian shook his head, feeling terrible for saying this.

"It means, my dear, that you are unable to breed hatchlings...you're infertile Cynder" Terrador's tone of voice was suddenly shallow, hating himself for telling this unexpected, and unwanted, revelation.

Cynder was instantly devastated, destroyed, her hopes of having young ones were over. Her emerald eyes widened while the pupils in the centre shrank down like the size of a pea. She couldn't believe, her dark counterpart was stopping her from having children, and she her reproductive organs were not even fully developed. That's when it hit her. She won't believe that Dark Cynder has destroyed her future when it hasn't begun to develop yet. She stood up swiftly, the anger was in motion with her movement as the tone of her voice did not sound all to innocent.

"No! I don't believe that for a damn eternity!" she swore. It captured Spyro's attention with shock. Terrador backed his head up, a jolt of terror just went through him as a reaction Cynder's sudden fury. The purple dragon stood up next to her, making Sparx back up against the door.

"Cynder!".

"Hey, don't make her go dark on us!" Sparx called out.

"Excuse me young dragoness?" Terrador felt insulted that Cyn rebelled against what he said.

"You say my dark counterpart has ruined my chances of having hatchlings, but I know my body hasn't even developed enough to even hold them in my belly! Don't tell me things that you don't know!" she snarled menacingly. She will not believe what the earth guardian says. Spyro wanted to stop her, but the only way he could was with force but he didn't want to hurt his beloved dragoness. He couldn't do anything but bystand this argument.

"Cynder, please calm down, there must be another explanation to this Terrador, how is it even possible that she is infertile, the darkness couldn't possibly effect her ability to have hatchlings. We've been planning this for some time when we were older, don't drop a bomb on us like this" Spyro pleaded that this is just fiction.

"Spyro, she was under the Dark master's influence. His goal was to eradicate all of us from the face of the planet, which means any dragon he was able to corrupt back then, Cynder included. Since this was his goal, he made sure that dragons under his control could not breed with another that was not under his influence. Infertility was ruined for any male or female back then" Terrador explained another malicious thing Malefor could do to get rid of the Dragon race. Cynder still didn't believe it and she replied without a pint of happiness.

"Don't give me that wretched lie! Malefor could do many things beyond what we could do but not that! Besides, he's gone forever and yet his magic still lives on. I'm done with this, stay out of my way!" Cynder jerked her body around and stomped over to the large wooden doors. She tail swiped Sparx out of the way, sending him sliding across the carpet and giving him a burn across his back.

"OW! What was that for?" he cried out to her, but she ignored the yellow dragonfly like he never existed. Using her jaws to twist the door knob, it opened for the dragoness, allowing her to storm out of the room and slam the wooden planks of wood. Spyro knew what he had to do. He wasn't going to have another Brute encounter if she ran away again. Spyro turned back to Terrador and told the earth guardian what must be done.

"Terrador, I need to go now, I have to talk to her" Spyro ran for the door but before he opened it the same way Cynder did, he looked back at Terrador.

"Before I go, I have to say this. Cynder was in heat back at the Shadow. Maybe there is still a chance that she can still be fertile".

"Is she still in that state Spyro? I'm too old for that anymore" Terrador asked.

"Not anymore...she must've finished being in heat back at the infirmary...Nrr! I have to get to her!" Spyro twisted the door knob and exited out of the room, leaving Sparx and Terrador by themselves. The large dragon breathed in deeply.

"I hope I did the right thing...I'm sorry Cynder" Terrador laid his entire body on the carpet and fell fast asleep. Sparx got up and looked around the room. He felt quite alone all of a sudden.

"See, they always leave me now. I'm starting to miss the old days...".

**A small one, but things are getting very busy around my place, which means I can't write anymore until the season has passed. A bit of a wait, but hey, Christmas keeps everyone busy, I don't see why I had to write a large one. In any case, hope you enjoyed, review, all that other stuff. And have a great Christmas =D**


	47. Averting a deadly regret

"CYNDER! CYNDER, WHERE ARE YOU?" Spyro ran along the hallways, desperately trying to find his infertile dragoness. They both just recently discovered that dreadful fear, the fear of having no hatchlings. The purple dragon hoped that she was still inside the city, or there will be trouble.

"I've got to find her, before she does something drastic, we're not having another Shadow of Intent!" he said in his head, fearing she has already left the city.

He rushed passed two mole guards that have opened the large doors for themselves, but the purple dragon came just in time to take into the air and fly out of the front doors. He went high in the sky, above the Grand Atrium's tall stature. It was just a freezing cold up here just as it is in arctic regions.

It was overcast weather, clouds forming together and blocking out the sun light, mildly overshadowing the city and its land below. The mole crowd had dispersed and the citizens have continued their daily lives, their last day before the Brutes attack and destroy everything behind the walls. It was unclear what the former Covenant warriors or the cheetahs were doing, but they certainly have a lot to do for tomorrow's upcoming morning.

Spyro observed extremely carefully and hard enough to find the dragoness on the outside of the walls hoping to spot her before she could get away any further. Unfortunately, she was not in sight. He then assumed the worst.

"No...SHE'S GONE AGAIN! WE CAN'T GO AFTER HER NOW, IT'S TOO...wait...who's that?" he stared down onto the flat top of the Atrium, spotting a distinct figure. Praying to every ancestor there ever was, he descended rapidly to the roof of the gargantuan pale white stone building.

"THERE SHE IS! CYNDER!".

His speed could match a Banshee's speed, moving as fast as the Covenant attack craft. Going through all that cold air again, as he got closer to the figure, it became clear it was her. She was sitting on the edge of the rooftop, looking out to most of the city. It had a perfect view, exposing every part of this enormous place, from the front gates to the main market place in the centre and more. The Brutes, even with vehicles, would have trouble moving through this whole place.

Spyro landed on all 4 paws perfectly, after all that speed, he was expecting a couple of broken bones. But nevertheless, he was a few feet behind the dragoness, who's entire front was looking out to the city. The dragon hero did notice something not right, Cynder's end of her tail was going up to her neck, but her wings were being held up, in turn, he couldn't see what she was doing.

"Cynder! Are you ok? Are you hurt?" he was about to come around in front of her, but the dragoness's sudden, but grief tone of voice stopped Spyro dead in his tracks.

"Don't you come close to me Spyro...my life is done for...I've had enough of it!".

"Just don't listen to Terrador, that may sound weird coming from me but I care for you Cynder, I don't believe that you're infertile" he tried to convince her, but to no avail.

"No Spyro, the guardians are always right. If they say I'm unable to produce hatchlings, then I obviously can't bear any hatchlings" her voice was in such sorrow, but it also sounded deathly and ill.

"You can! It's just that you're body hasn't developed enough for you to carry them yet. The time will come, just like you said a couple of nights ago. You opened my eyes then" Spyro smiled lovingly, but Cynder still did not turn her head around.

"Two nights ago, THAT WAS TWO NIGHTS AGO! Things have changed since then you fool. The Brutes are coming, the city is on its last legs and just now that I've discovered I'm infertile! Face it Spyro, we won't even make it to the age when we're actually be able to make hatchlings, one of us will die and unfortunately, we'll have to accept that" he couldn't believe the words that came out of her. Insulted and disrespected, he tried to make his way to in front of the dragoness.

"That's it Cynder, I can cope with you being stressed and everything else, but calling me a fool crosses the line. Why can't you trust my words for once instead of someone else's?" he was quite unhappy and angry with the dragoness's attitude, just a single metre away from her, but she instantly turned around, revealing what she was hiding.

Her scythe tail's gap was enclosed with her neck. Her vulnerable windpipe was exposed to her sharp blade. The dragoness was planning to commit suicide but slicing the area where she could breathe, She wanted to end her own life. One pull from her tail and she'll slice her own neck, completely being cut off from air and bleed to death.

She wasn't bluffing either, her face exposed all why she didn't want to live anymore, the suffering she had caused for herself, Spyro and others, the dark side that was within her, the fact that she was unable to breed, all of it combined to make her cut the veins and windpipe in her neck...and Spyro was against all of it.

"Cy-Cynder...what are you doing?" he could not believe what he was seeing, Cynder, his beautiful and loving Cynder was about to kill herself. He took a step forward, wanting to get her out of that suicide position.

"Don't take another step Spyro, I'll do it! I'll end my own life with my own tool of death and violence" she threatened to do it, making Spyro back off.

"You don't have to do this, you haven't experienced a full, happy life yet. We can create that!" he tried as best as he could to stop her from making the biggest mistake she'll ever make, as well as the biggest regret Spyro will be glued with, a scar that would never heal.

"I'll tell you what life I've been having Spyro...FIGHTING! That's all it's ever been doing, fighting, fighting, FIGHTING! I bet my destiny was to hatch from my egg and fight battles until I die! I was never meant to have a normal life, I was only meant to hatch and kill! I'M A DAMN CREATURE THAT WAS BRED TO KILL! TO KILL UNTIL I HAVE FALLEN!" she stepped back, closing dangerously to the edge of the Atrium.

"Then don't fight, no one is forcing you" he came one step closer.

"If I don't, others will suffer for not saving them, that just feeds the shadow that's inside me...face it Spyro, all I've done is three things; fight, kill and destroy...I hate living with a life like that" it was a war inside her voice, the sorrow was fighting the fury. She couldn't clearly talk to him with her enraged but grieved voice. Her tail was starting to become tense, reading itself for the final act.

Spyro could clearly see it, "Don't do it Cynder! There must be a way to make you a fertile dragoness again, there has to be. If we can, we'll run away together away from the city, away from all the fighting and dangers around and set up our own lives and defend that instead of everyone else's" he tried everything to convince her, but nevertheless, she refuses with her opinion of that plan.

"Then you'd just leave people to die then Spyro...I'd never thought you would speak those words...that's just almost as bad as Malefor's goal to destroy them" she backed herself to the very end, she could do it now and her body would fall through the air and crash onto the ground, "Goodbye Spyro...I love you" she closed her eyes and prepared to make her final decision of life and death.

About to make her ultimate demise using her own blade, Spyro used his own tail to whip hers against the blade, surprising her with the utter most shock, having no time to retaliate. He pulled her blade away from her neck, but he was dangerously close to cutting her. He kept her scythe tail tip on the ground and held it there as he gently held the Cynder's head with his front paws, holding her in place as both pairs of eyes gazed upon each other.

"I'm like you Cynder, I can't live without you. We can't live we without each other, it's within our instincts to be together. If you're stressed, nervous, frightened, angry, anything...please come to me instead of running off. I need by my side all the time, and I worry when you're not around me. I can't help but think something has happened to you" Spyro kept a firm but very gentle grip of the dragoness's fragile head. Like before, she couldn't do anything but listen to his words, mesmerised by his calm, male voice.

"I promise Cynder, with the galaxy as my witness, I promise we'll make you fertile again, dark side or no dark side, we'll find a way to have kids one day. When we're older, we'll see those little ones running around, just like you said" his wings wrapped her back, encasing themselves. Spyro closed his eyes and leaned forward, lowering his paws to go around Cynder's back. She was in total affection. She was secure, protected by most of his body.

Her eyes explored Spyro's facial expression. All her anger and desire to kill herself were washed away. Every time Spyro shows his love towards her, every fear, every frightening and destructive thing she thinks of totally is extinguished. Now she knew every time something saddens her, she can just run to the purple dragon for comfort and reassurance. It surprised her how much Spyro is willing to keep her at his side, he just saved herself from a grave mistake. She couldn't be thankful enough.

She stood on her two hind legs, like Spyro was, and wrapped her two front paws around his back. Both of them fell for each other's embrace. The tears began rolling down her once more.

"I'm sorry Spyro...(sobs) I'm so sorry! (sobs) Thank you so much for stopping me!" her head was against his neck, and he just felt total joy when each other's scales touched his. All he could do was calm her down after such mentally terrifying experience.

"Shh, there, there, everything is fine, you put aside those suicidal steps. You're with me now, and that's all I need" his front right paw caressed up and down Cynder's smooth back scales. She smiled joyfully, this might be the first part of the body that he has caressed that's not her head.

"(Sniffs) No, I mean it, I didn't know what I was doing. Every time I get upset, I run away like a pathetic coward, weak and defenceless. My own selfishness always gets the better of me!" she whimpered.

"Everyone has something like that Cynder, even I do. When Ignitus was gone, I thought my whole world collapsed. He was like a father to me, and when that terrible moment happened...it felt like Malefor had already won. Then you yelled out to me, dragging me out of that dark self of mine...you were there for me Cyn. I knew then not only I will fight for the innocent of this world...I was fighting for you. You are my new world...and it'll stay like that forever" their lips intertwined, creating an emotion they both enjoy.

Cynder always seemed to have a mild moan as a reaction from these moments, and this was no exception. Her growing noises of moderate ecstasy enlightened Spyro to explore her body with his paws, slowly moving around her back and the sides of her chest and belly, feeling the smoothness of her scales, but he didn't do anything that was out of their age. Cyn though, seemed to get the idea of what Spyro was doing, in turn, she caressed down his back scales, feeling the sharp and spikes that went down his spinal column.

She removed her head away from Spyro to nuzzle under his chin. She needed his comfort and security, his love and affection, his protection and defence.

"I love you..." she whispered.

"I love you too..." he replied quietly.

"Oh, and one more thing..." Spyro leaned his neck back to look at her eye to eye. She removed her head from his neck and looked up to him.

"What is it" she stared at him with those same loving emerald eyes.

"Don't run away like that EVER again please" he tilted his head right with nice, cocky little smirk. A mild chuckle escaped her maw.

"Only...if you will come and sleep with me tonight in my room. It's been a while since we've been in each other's rooms" she exposed a glee little smile. Spyro gently her nose.

"I'd love to" he playfully grinned and they both nuzzled each other's tips of their noses.

After a few minutes of affectionate loving, Cynder pulled away from Spyro and twisted her head around to see everything below the young dragons. She kept that smile on her expression, getting back on all 4 legs to stand on. Spyro did the same, retracting back to his normal standing state and watched as Cyn stood against the edge. Her two front pairs of claws hanged over the cliff like building side to observe the surroundings of the entire town. Spyro stood by her left side, hero and heroine, standing tall and proud as the saviors and defenders of Warfang. The sight was quite amazing, but the weather could be better.

"Do you think we can beat him Spyro?" she whispered, not disturbing the peace.

"Hm?" he looked at her pretty face.

"Do you think we can beat Magnaruckus? He's not just coming for Thel and the elites. he's coming for us. We have made a dramatic effect on his army and he wants us dead. He personally wants me dead, I'm sure of it" she was afraid, very afraid that the large B.

"I won't let him lay a finger on you, I'll defend you to the death, I'll make sure the savage pays for his crimes against our world. He deserves to at least die 20 times. We can beat him Cynder, I know it" Spyro squinted his eyes down, both par of lids were against his pupils, remembering the Brute's strength and size...and the hate he had towards the both of them. She couldn't help but stare at her future mate, resting her head against his neck.

"...I hope so" she smirked, closing her eyes and letting her imagination run free.

Spyro blushed, having that same joyful look on his face. Cynder was his dragoness, no one would be allowed to have her, no one will be allowed to hurt her, and as long as he drew the air of this planet, he'll stand by her until the end. He was in his own world, thoughts of him and Cyn growing up together, building their own future without having to fight. It was all interrupted though as the black dragoness removed her head from the scales on his neck.

"C'mon, let's see what's going on down there" Cynder sounded excited for some reason.

"Why, what do you want to see?".

"The elites, remember they've been working on that walking machine? They finally got the power source. Hurry up slow poke" she jumped off the ledge and pierced downwards. Spyro was shocked that she made such an act but at the last possible second, her wings spread out and flew over the many buildings around Warfang, moving towards near the city gates.

"Show off" Spyro mocked her moves. Taking off from the roof and descended towards the former Terror of the skies.

Near a market stall that was selling large quantities of fruit, apples, watermelons, mangoes and many more, the Sangheili were putting together the finishing touches of the Locust walker. The paint job was far more different than it's Covenant cousin was, having a sapphire metallic finish with two large solid green stripes around each leg. It was unknown where the moles had the resources to have a sparkling paint effect like this, but it stylises the Locust very well.

As for the main body structure, it was the exact same as its predecessors were, having that long, elegant head that resembles the Banshee cockpit. It's legs were keeping the vehicle nice and balanced, standing on all 4 with no problem, and the focus rifle that had been fitted to it has been through serious upgrades made by Darst, now it was a devastating beam cannon, able to melt through tank armour.

Unfortunately, this term of power had its side effect. The beam actually had a limited range, if it went beyond 200 yards, the beam would gradually lose its power and could barely do anything but tickle a Ghost at that range. Still, power was needed for this battle and the Locust was one of the best assets the resistance has against the Brutes.

Tesk was inside the Locust, operating the pilot seat. He was waiting for Ventor and Darst to finish the final instalments of the power core, placed at the back of the base. Where's the beam was at the bottom of the head, the core was set under the head, but connected to the same square like controller of the legs and head, a battery pack as a human would call it.

"All right, she's in place. Tesk! How is she handling?" Darst shouted out to Tesk. Some moles who were in charge of the market were staring at the machine in awe from behind their stand. The Locust was at a decent 12 feet high, taller than both of the Hunters put together. It was about 10 feet wide as well. Still, height does not matter as long as it was a functioning walker.

Tesk looked at the numbers inside the Locust activate, lights powered up everywhere and the temperature of the core, a small bar of blue, "Core temperature is ok, um...beam power is nominal, I think. Hydraulics of the legs are in shape...mostly. I don't know about controls though" Tesk grabbed hold of the two handling rods in front of him, covered in a nice firm grip like material, in order to stop any sweat put onto the controls.

When he started moving them around, the whole machine took response, and suddenly stood tall from its slumber. The walker has awakened. Darst and Ventor backed up in surprise, taking refuge with the other Sangheili. The Hunters and the Grunts were next to the elite group, but even they took a couple of steps back. The 3 mole's mouths dropped, witnessing a powerful machine standing much higher now.

"Agh! Shin! What are you doing?" Ventor yelled out Raskar.

"Um...you could say I'm taking her for a spin captain" Tesk grinned. He was very excited to take their new asset out for a course. As he pushed the sticks forward, the front right leg lifted up and moved forward, quickly followed by the back left one. The front left then went up and took the same direction, as did the back left one. It moved in a simple patter of walking.

"HA HA HA, THIS IS THE BEST THING I'VE EVER DRIVEN!" Tesk was having a blast with the Locust. He was able to walk it around most of the area around it, a square like area for the Locust to test its speed and manoeuvrability out. He circled it around the former Covenant group, surrounding them like a shark in the water. He could twist the head around with no problem at all. The speed was quite slow, but still faster than the Scarab's legs of movement.

"It works with great success, the Locust is finally ready! Thanks to you Shin" Darst looked up in the sky, remembering Tarscar was the one who helped with the structure of the vehicle. Although he was lost, at least he gave them hope for the final battle.

"So, that's it, all the vehicles are ready!" Yapflop jumped for joy as he looked over to the other vehicles.

The Spectre was next to the Ghost against the large stone wall. The Banshee was sitting right with the Spectre while the Phantom, the largest of all their assets, was hovering peacefully just under the wall's protection, right beside the sleek Banshee design. The attack aircraft had also finished it's makeover, now fully becoming the sleeker version that was used during the battle of Reach, capable of more speed and evasion than what the Brutes have. No upgrades have been made to the Phantom, Spectre or Ghost, but there was not enough time for them.

The Locust and the Banshee were their best vehicles for the battle, "All in all, a total of 5 war machines, plus those cannons on top of the wall for defence. With the weapons we're gathered and the troops added all up, we should stand a chance against whatever the Brutes have...let's hope this is enough" Ventor observed each of their machines, all ready for battle, and ready for the Jiralhanae battle.

Cynder landed on the cobblestone ground first, only to look up at the approaching Locust walker heading towards her. Her mouth was slowly getting gapped open as it came closer. The sheer size of this metal hulk compared to her was enormous. She could not believe how big the walker could, and she thought Hunters were big.

The Locust stopped just in front of the dragoness, the head slowly looked down upon her small but cunning body. She could slowly feel the fear tensing up in her veins, but Tesk's voice soon calmed her down...a bit.

"Hello Cynder, how do you like the Locust?" his expression was a smug smirk, but Cyn couldn't see it behind this machine.

"I think it's safe to assume that I suddenly need to go to the toilet...Uhhh" she was dumbstruck by this monster.

**How was the Christmas holidays my friends? they must've been awesome. Anyhoo, I hope you've enjoyed this recent chapter of the story, things are finally all coming together. The new year is coming but I for one am not looking forward to it, I'm probably going to hate, it's going right next to 2003...I hated 2003 for some reason. Have a nice day people, stay safe.**

**P.S: For anyone who is interested, keep an eye in the sky at night because a light show is apparently happening in some parts of the world because the sun has had another one of those CME (coronial mass ejections) has happened and it's going to hit earth. No danger involved of course, maybe except for the satellites, but in any case, enjoy the light show at night and tell me how it is...because Tasmainia never gets any of it (Nothing ever happens here...)**


	48. A wonderful Locust

Cynder was awestruck by the mass of the Locust, by the fact how monstrous it can be with 4 spider like legs. Those legs were somewhat resembling to the Golem's own earthy magma legs. They both must share the traits of walking, they even had the same pattern. The head does remind her of the Banshee's cockpit, only more bulkier, and she could see the beam cannon pointing right at her. She took two steps to the left to avoid any 'accidents' that could be made.

Spyro landed just beside her, looking up at the Locust.

"Whoa...that could spread fear into the hearts and minds of the Brutes..." his pupils shrank as the vehicle stared down upon the both of them.

"Yes, this will do fine against those freaks, I take it Tesk is going to drive it?" Ventor patted the Locust's front left leg, very happy with this work of war.

"Oh, it'll be my pleasure Captain, I'll show those Jiralhanae bastards what happens when you mess with the Sangheili race" Tesk all of sudden had a cocky attitude, becoming the proud driver of the Locust.

"Thatta boy, your family should be proud of you for saying that. He's a delightful character, isn't he?" the red armoured elite grinned at the two dragons.

"When he's in that thing...he sure is" Spyro commented politely about Tesk's newfound behaviour. He turned to Cynder to see if she had anything to say, but the black dragoness was still looking up to the Locust like it's the most important thing in the galaxy, completely astonished by the walker.

"Hey, are you ok?" Spyro noticed that her legs were trembling a bit from the sight that they stand in front of.

"(Gulp)...We should be thankful that the Covenant didn't invade us. I don't like how it stares at me" she had a bead of sweat come down her forehead, her heart was racing every second. She'd hate to be the Brutes now. Spyro bumped her hip with his.

"Why? It's just a machine. Remember that battering ram and those towers during the defence for Warfang? They're much larger compared to this" Spyro tried to ease her paranoia towards the resistance Locust, but she still wasn't quite fond of it.

"Yeah, but this has much more power than any of those, and they aren't made of metal like this thing" Cyn replied nervously, "though, it might be exciting to see what it does against the Brutes" she was curious of what the Locust was capable of, how it fought, how the Jiralhanae will react when they find out the Sangheili has this kind of firepower at their disposal.

That aside, she still didn't like it staring right at her, as if Tesk was staring into her soul, "Though, it would be nice if he moved it...it creeps me out".

"Just ask Tesk to move it then, I'm sure he'd be happy to oblige" he suggested to her. Cynder looked back up to Raskar's 4 legged machine of doom.

"Right. Tesk, could be so nice to not stare at us, I'm feeling quite uncomfortable right now" Cyn asked with such kind nervousness.

"You're wish is my command, young dragoness, he he" Tesk's voice through the Locust sounded quite mechanised, as if the machine was talking. He kindly backed the walker up to stare at the rest of the group.

Cynder had a raised brow, "Did...did he just flirt with me?" her tone of voice sounded annoyed. Spyro chuckled inside himself, knowing Tesk was just having a little fun.

"Eh, at his age, anything can happen, he's just becoming a much more mature Sangheili warrior" Odesa stared back at the Locust.

"More like immature, he just reminded me of someone I know" Cyn's eyes pointed directly at Spyro. He noticed those green emerald gems staring at him.

"Hey, do I really deserve that look?" he cocked his head towards her.

"I meant Sparx you idiot" she corrected his mistake.

"Oh...oops" he felt so stupid after hearing that.

"Ung...males, no matter what species they are..." she walked away from them, taking the only exit out of the square, through a corner between two averagely sized buildings.

"Where are you going?" Spyro called out to her, wondering where she was off to.

"I'm going to the infirmary, I need to see if Thel is getting better" she looked back, yelling her reply out to the purple hero of the city.

"All right, but remember what I said, ok?" he reminded her back at the top of the Atrium. She smiled lovingly back to him.

"Of course I will. I'll catch you later Spyro...especially tonight" she winked her left eye, becoming so luring with that act. He was dazzled by how attractive she could be, a very tempting dragoness. Ventor noticed the two little love bird's moment right there.

"Oh spare me the theatrics...I'll never understand your race" Odesa crossed his arms, looking down upon Spyro.

"You know what, I'll never understand yours either Ventor" he smirked back at the much taller Sangheili.

"Hmph...well played I suppose" Ventor shared his condolences to the dragon, and he returned the comment with a smug like expression.

The Locust head's back part started rising, opening a hole halfway along the ornament like structure. It revealed the interior of the Locust, where Tesk had piloted the walker. He pushed himself out of the cockpit and landed behind the machine. It was against the wall on its right side. With a cocky smile on his face, he walked towards the rest of the Sangheili group. A couple of excited Grunts welcomed him.

"Yay for Tesk, he gets to use the big giant walking metal insect thingy against the stinky Brutes, they are so going to get an ass whoppin! Who's with me?" Yapflop tried to increase morale, asking who's going to be with him in tomorrow's battle. No response was made by the awkward staring elites, until Darst interrupted.

"I don't know why you need help, you're flying the Phantom tomorrow after all. I heard you staked that claim" Darst's drooped mandibles and reptile like eyes gazed at the orange armoured Grunt.

"Oh yeah, damn right I'm flying the Phantom, I'm going to be using one of the biggest flying vehicles against the Jiralhanae! Whoo hoo!" he jumped for joy. Jabjab suddenly became his buzz kill.

"Correct me if I'm wrong, but aren't you going to be the biggest target out of all of us in the fight then?" a smartass like attitude ruined Yapflop's moment of happiness, remembering the Brutes are going to have a lot of big guns to take down the largest assets that the resistance will have, the Phantom included.

"Um...really? They are?...I'm gonna die" Yapflop's arms dropped to the ground with such shallow unhappiness. Both Hunter's low growling like laugh overshadowed him even more.

"Ah, don't get him upset like that, Yapflop, although it pains me to say this because your an Unggoy...you'll be fine. I'm sure you'll make Magnaruckus and his Brutes pay for what he has put the both of you through, remember when you were on his side?" Kino decided to try and lift the Grunt's spirit up. Like Shin, he cares about the Grunts, and he made it his newfound duty to make sure the Unggoy get through this final fight to the death.

"Yeah...I still hate him for how he treated us, that big jerk" Yapflop remembered the chieftain's face, a sudden swell of anger wanted to make him punch the Brute between the eyes, as vengeance for the inappropriate treatment he gave them. Darst enjoyed hearing Yapflop's desire to loathe the chieftain.

"Good enough. To celebrate the completion of both the Banshee and the Locust, we should find a place to fill our bellies, I don't know about the rest of you, but I'm sick of this hunger" Kino felt the groaning moans of his stomach, telling him to eat something nice and tender.

"I second on that one, let's go Sangheili" Jabjab marched his way out of the group, taking the lead of the blue armoured elites. They followed him to the nearest place to eat out. Kino, Yapflop and the Hunters watched the group leave them, planning to catch in a minute.

"That one has got those 3 at his service, a Grunt leading a group of elites...what has this galaxy come to. Whatever. Ventor!" the crimson zealot shouted out to his comrade. Odesa's attention on Spyro was drawn to Darst.

"We're going to find a place to store out stomachs, are you coming with us?". Ventor liked the idea, he hasn't eaten something delicious since he ate the out of date rations onboard the Shadow.

"Yes, a decent meal sounds very satisfying. All right Darst, I'm coming, you still owe me for what you did to me at the infirmary though, so you're paying for whatever those furballs want" he wanted a little payback for the incident when Kino actually threw him out of the tent when Arbiter ordered him gone.

"Are you still moaning from when I threw you out of that place, are you really that pathetic?" Darst egged him on even more.

"Ah, go inhale a plasma battery! I'll meet you there in a few minutes" he insulted the much large Sangheili, but going along with the plan.

"All right then. Hunters, since you somehow already feed yourselves (worm colonies, gargh!), you might as well go back up to the front gate walls. Alert us if anything unexpected and unwanted shows up" the zealot ordered the two Lekgolos. In his mind though, he was sickened by the fact that the colonies can feed themselves their own dead flesh and grow more to replace those rotten areas with the flesh they eat.

Both Lekgolos nodded in unison, and their metallic armoured feet stomped away, the larger one leading it's smaller companion to the top of the walls, "Hey, Hunter number 1" Kino called to the gigantic one. It's orange wormed neck twisted around, listening in to Darst's words.

"These are dire times Lekgolo. The moment you see any of those barbaric monsters, don't wait one second for that alert. We're all counting on the both of you" Kino relayed how vigilant these creatures needed to be, as their enemies are closing in. The large Hunter made a low growl, taking up Darst's advice. It returned to making its way back up to the top of the wall, to watch out for the inevitable attack.

"Man, I can't wait to see how they'll do against the Brutes, their vehicles won't stand a chance!" Jabjab squealed excitedly. Kino though, was rather sketchy about Jabjab's high hopes. The crimson elite has not forgotten that the Jiralhanae bastards had one vehicle that was enough to devastate the entire city. A vehicle he has feared since the ground battles of the Ark. A 4 legged instrument of death and violence, the biggest and most terrifying they can come.

Darst looked down at Jabjab, "I'm afraid that not all their mechanised monstrosities will be easily beaten my young Grunt friend. There's something that Magnaruckus has at his disposal that we may not be able to beat" he sat on the cobblestone ground, he rested his arms on his knees and remembering that unfaithful day on the Ark.

"Huh? what do you mean, we have everything we need to take on the Brutes; Locust, Phantom, Spectre, Ghost, the Hunters...I've just noticed that most of our vehicles are named after scary things..." Jabjab was referencing to supernatural forces that the vehicles are named after, coming to a stunning conclusion, from his perspective. No, Darst was talking about a threat unlike any other the elites have faced, a walking menace. And they've used them before, against Humanity.

"Jabjab, those won't be enough to take on the Scarab, they'll only dent it...if that nightmare breached through those walls, we'll all end up dead" Kino has a living fear for Scarabs, no matter what side they're on, he is scared of them, even more scared than having the Flood as your enemy.

"That thing? You've got to be kidding, that piece of junk is a huge target, one of us would take it out eventually destroy it" Jabjab was cool and calm with the fact a Scarab was heading their way, but Darst stared at him right in the eyes.

"What are you talking about? That monster will tear us all apart! It'll squash us, blast us, rip us all to tiny pieces. I know because I witnessed it destroy an entire convoy, a fully equipped convoy that could deal with anything, but the Scarabs got the jump on them. We will be annihilated exactly like them if that psychopathic beast brings that terror here".

This is the very first time Jabjab has seen Darst get so worked up like this, let alone being terrified by a vehicle. The green armoured grunt came to the conclusion that Darst had lost his marble, deciding to calm the oversized zealot down.

"Kino, were you hit in the head by something hard, because you're talking nonsense, we'll beat that oversized 4 legged spider to a pulp, and with that, the Brutes will learn it the hard way" Jabjab rubbed his clawy hands together like an evil maniac, very sure that the Scarab will lose.

Darst was quite surprised by this newfound courage Jabjab had achieved.

"Unggoy...I've never seen such bravery from a grunt...are you absolutely sure we can defeat the Scarab?" Darst sat properly back on his bottom.

In all his life, Jabjab has never had such a question asked by an elite. Most of the time he would ask them if they were able to accomplish an extremely difficult task but now, a zealot class warrior, a veteran Sangheili of the Human-Covenant war, a sole survivor against Humans, Brutes and Flood, is asking him whether the Scarab will be defeated or not.

With surprise still laying at the back on his tongue, Jabjab answered profoundly to the crimson elite, "Well, of course we will. I have no doubt that the Scarab can and will be destroyed...(gulp)" he still wasn't so sure if his answer was the correct one though, but he stuck by it. A huff of respect left Darst's mandible mouth, taking the answer and hoped for the best for tomorrow.

"I sure hope you're right Jabjab...I'm afraid of Scarabs" he shamelessly let it out, no hesitation to get in the way of letting the truth he had been holding from most individuals, aside from maybe Thel. Jabjab's eyes rounded like dishes, surprised to hear a strong elite say that.

"Wait, I thought you weren't afraid of anything, so why Scarabs, I thought those Flood squishes would get to most people. Is it something to do with that convoy you said a minute ago?" Jabjab asked out of curiousness and boredom, but then came Ventor and Spyro, moving towards where he and Darst were.

Bright crimson and brawn decided to answer Jabjab this quickly, "I'll tell you another time grunt. Right now, it is best if we get a move on, I might as well enjoy the time I have before the death and violence that must occur tomorrow" Kino stood strong and tall, not letting his fear grab a hold of him forever. If he was going to do die tomorrow, he'll make this last day of living count, and what other way to do that besides spending that time with your friends and allies.

"Kino, Jabjab, why are you still standing here? I told both of you to go to ahead" a little inpersitant Odesa asked them.

He caught Darst's attention quickly, spinning around to appropriately talk to the captain, "I just wanted to talk to young Jabjab here before departing. Besides, I thought it was best if we waited for you. We stick together, as allies...and former crew members" Darst crossed his arms, remembering the last time he saw the Shadow and when the explosion caught wind of the city. Ventor bowed his head down respectfully to remember her as well.

That ship, that beautiful and amazing ship, reduced to absolutely nothing, taking with not only the corpses of the crew, but their spirits, spirits that will guide each and every creature inside this city to eradicate every Brute on this world. Magnaruckus must be stopped, no matter who dies, the monster has to completely and utterly exterminated from this galaxy.

Memories aside, Ventor lifted his head and suggested they get a move on, "I think we should go find that idiotic grunt now, god knows where that little freak ran off with the others" he suggested.

"I concur, but he hasn't eaten anything since being on that Brute ship, so his stomach would lead him to an eatery. Spyro, how would you like to join us, even you can't fight on an empty stomach my purple ally" Kino smiled down at the hero of Warfang. Spyro suddenly heard the growls inside him, loud enough for even Jabjab to hear. A quite embarrassing moment for him.

"Dude, I could hear that from here!" Jabjab laughed, at least he was spending the many of his last hours before the battle.

"When someone mentions something like that, the reference bound to come bouncing back. But sure, I've got nothing planned" the purple dragon accepted Darst's polite invitation to join. He might as well get to learn a little more about their race while he's at it

"Excellent, shall we get moving?" Kino turned back Ventor.

The captain nodded, jolting his head in the direction Yapflop took with the other elites. Darst smirked and took the lead of the group, having them leave all the vehicles to slumber, becoming fully ready for tomorrow. The vehicles were ready, the weapons were ready, stationed defences are running tight, the Hunters were keeping a look out, almost everything is ready, except for strong armour some mole defenders to wear, as well as the repairs for Spyro's armour.

As the 4 went on to finding the rest of their group, Cynder was just approaching the front of the infirmary. No guards or crowds to get in her way like Thel and the others did to get her, Spyro, Jabjab and Yapflop in. There was barely an average citizen walking around here. The only moving around was a small tumbleweed rolling across the straight, being carried off by the wind.

Cyn's eyes were more focused on the red cross that was set above the entrance into the tent, letting her thoughts ponder about the good or bad that will reveal Thel's fate.

"Arbiter. You saved me while I was unconscious, when I was unable to even move. I don't know how I can thank you for that but the very least I can do is pay you visit. I hope he's still alive...he has to be, he's the city's battle leader tomorrow. He rounded up everyone's fighting spirit. If he's dead then...no. No, don't think of the negatives Cyn, thin of the positives, THINK of the positives" she was deciding whether or not Thel was going to be awake and alive in there, or he's a cold dead corpse.

She tried to keep her head up and think of the good things that can come out to answer her question, to ease her concerns for Thel and his health. She washed away the negative thoughts in her mind and continued on into the white tent.

Cyn went along the same long hallway with the many rooms on the left side, hoping to find Thel in one of them. She looked into one, no one there. Going across to the second one, still nothing. Onto the next one, still nothing. 5 more rooms to go.

"Arbiter? (looks into the 4th one) Ung! where is he?" she was slowly hating this searching, for he should be in one of these rooms, but before she could get to the 5th room, Clin, Thel's mole doctor, was walking down the hall, coming towards the black dragoness.

The face he had. It wasn't a good sign. In fact, it looks like he saw something terrible, and Cynder could see it in his expression. This mole was working on Thel's injuries and if Thel died during the healing of his injuries, there would be hell to pay. Cynder stopped the mole in his tracks, using her tail to get in front of his point of movement, blocking him from going anywhere.

The good doctor followed the tail, leading up to the hips, going along the body up to her neck and finally, their eyes finally met, and Cyn's expression of slight anger really caught his attention. He knew what she wasn't in the mood for small talk.

He cleared his throat to speak properly, "Afternoon miss" the slightly panicked mole respectfully said his hello, "I don't suppose you're here for a, um...checkout?" the mole smiled nervously.

"What's Arbiter's condition Clin? I don't like that face you just made. What's happened, what did you do?" Cyn kept her full anger at bay, keeping a firm but impatient tone to rush the doctor into telling her.

It was working, "(deep and weary sigh), Miss, we've done everything we could for him, but when we start operating on his chest...his ribs were all broken. His spine was damaged severely, same goes with his nerve centre. His lungs had both collapsed when we made the incision. One of his hearts had also failed and the other will soon to stop...I'm sorry ma'am but..." Clin's head dropped down, his eyes were staring at the cobblestones for which he stood on.

She knew instantly what he was talking about, but Cynder didn't want to take it. Like her infertility, she didn't want to believe that her Sangheili friend had died by a simple Brute's attack, of all the injuries he had suffered, this was not to be the cause of his death.

"Don't you dare say he's dead Clin, if he's gone, I'm going to rip your eyes out and use them souvenirs!" she threatened the defenceless doctor, pushing him over and stomped her right claws onto his neck.

"W-WAIT MISS, LET ME GO! I WAS JUST...I WAS!" but Clin couldn't speak anymore words until he inhaled more oxygen. Cynder pressed even harder.

"You was just what? huh? You was just WHAT?" she mildly growled, but a voice down the end of the hall called her name, followed by the slight sound of echo.

"Cynder? Is that you? what are you doing" Thel sounded completely healthy from his proud mildly deep voice. It instantly grabbed Cyn's attention, cocking her around towards where his voice came from.

"Arbiter?" the sound of shock and surprise left her mouth, slowly loosening her assault on Clin.

"I was just joking miss, he's fine! Can you let me go now...please!" Clin begged to be released. She suddenly felt really guilty, she almost chocked an unarmed mole to death.

"Geez Clin, don't do that!" she removed her paw from the mole, allowing him to get back up, "I'm sorry doctor, but never joke about things like that! Especially around me" she apologised as well as warned the mole.

"I'll take that into consideration for the near future miss (coughs), ouch..." Clin repeatedly rubbed his neck, to rid of the pain Cynder had caused him.

The dragoness ran down to the end of the hall, leaving Clin to watch her go see her 7 feet tall alien friend. At the very last room, she saw him right there, surrounded by 5 other moles, just beginning to sit up from the hospital bed. She noticed some dark purple blood trails on some parts of the bed. She wondered what Clin and those doctors had been doing to Thel. Just coming into his room, Thel stood tall on the cobblestones, watching the dragoness come closer.

"What happened, why is your blood on that bed?" Cynder asked curiously, hoping nothing to bad will come out of his mandibles.

"Didn't Clin tell you? he had to make an incision on my chest to check the damage. I used covered by mouth with the pillow to not scream or yell, I was awake during the whole thing" a painful remedy happened to Thel, be awake while your chest was being cut open. Cynder felt a mental pain in her chest as reaction, imagining what that was like for Vadam.

"They were cutting you? While you were awake? Wasn't there anyway to put you asleep while they did that?" she needed to know, in case she had to have an operation.

"No miss, all subjects have to be awake during the process. Thel told us that on the Human's planet and on his that they use a type of sleeping gas, putting out the patient while they operated. We're thinking about finding and using something like that if we ever find the resources" Clin came in, telling her about the procedures. She felt ill in her stomach, the gas idea is sounding really good right now.

"I rather not go through an experience like that, I rather the gas. You're asleep for it, aren't you?" she gave her opinion, questioning it's most likely outcome.

"You do, just smell a bit of the stuff and inhale it, you're knocked out cold" Thel walked up next to her. She smiled, glad to have her told friend back up and running again. He returned with a smirk, then looked behind to talk to Clin.

"So doc, am I free to leave?" he asked kindly.

"Of course, just be sure to check in with me tomorrow...when the battle is one, hopefully. We're all counting on you elites to stop those freaks, to defend our city" Clin gave his full support to Thel's elites, entrusting to make sure the city will not fall to the Jiralhanae threat.

"I'm afraid that we can't stop them unless we had help. Those mole soldiers and those cheetah warriors will also be needed, otherwise we won't stand a good fighting chance. I bid farewell to you Clin. Stay safe" Thel started leaving the room with Cynder. The moles stayed behind to clean up the mess for the next patient that comes.

Just leaving the tent, Cynder asked Arby something quickly, "If they had to cut your chest open to see the wounds, how come I don't see your innards coming out?" the curious dragoness asked.

"I had to have stiches, which will help the incursion clear up and I'll need taken out tomorrow, which is why Clin needs to see me then. The benefits of a redundant nervous system, quick healing I'll tell you. I think I have 20 or 30 of them, not sure" Thel explained, having the small surgical sutures hidden behind his armour.

"Anything serious that you need to be concerned about, you were almost crushed by a Brute" she looked up to him while they were still on the move.

"Some bruised ribs. That's not really much of concern, but they do get to me, especially when I breathe. Clin did say though that they were close to breaking if that Jiralhanae didn't hold back" he revealed that Drektus wasn't using his full strength to crush Thel, holding it back and not breaking his chest entirely. A surprised Cyn widened her eyes.

"He held back? Why would he hold back?".

"I'm in the dark as much as you are Cynder, I'll never know...so, what did you and Spyro have to talk to Terrador about?" he asked with the nicest of attitudes.

All Cyn did was frown.

**Why Arbiter? because Magnaruckus is a dick! who'd actually serve that guy and do his bidding. Ahem, rant over, I hope you enjoyed this chapter, welcome to the year of 2012, and so on. I have recently made a poll on my account asking what are your favourite characters in the story, you got 5 choices out of like 22, so feel free to check up on that. I also made a deviantart account called Annihilator79, I've uploaded 6 pics already of a few of my fav characters, even some sketches, so if you'd like to, check that out as well. Till next time!**


	49. A nice set of armour

**A quick reply to Haha, Spyro and Cyn rarely use swears, only in a state of anger, especially when it's against Magnaruckus or any of his allies. They don't go beyond the word 'fuck' or anything else that's pretty crude. Damn, bitch, bastard is what they use, and only directly pointed at Magnaruckus, cause he is a bastard pretty much. This is my final response to anonymous reviewers as I'm sick to death of doing it, I've turned off their ability to review, (sorry guys) so from now on, only members can review, because I'm also on the road to 100 reviews (SWEET!). On we go**

"INFERTILE? HOW IN THE GALAXY HAVE YOU BECOME INFERTILE?" Arbiter was fazed by this recent discovery of Cynder's inability to have hatchlings.

After all they've been through, after all Cynder has been, it's all been devastated by this new fact. Cynder's frowned expression covered her face, expressing how she felt about this.

"Thel, my dark counterpart is what's keeping me away from having a family, if I don't find a way to get rid of it, I'll be plagued for the rest of my life" she shook her head in total depression.

It was bad enough she had it, but taking away her future goes beyond the limits of her mental mind.

"By the gods, and you almost killed yourself because of this? That is completely unacceptable and unneeded, even by Sangheili standards" Thel spun around, his back facing Cynder, and crossed him arms, "(Sigh) I should've known things would've suddenly gone downhill from the destruction of the Shadow" an unhappy Thel cursed it all, but it confuses Cynder that Thel really cares about her condition.

"Arbiter, it's not a total negative thing, not for you or the Sangheili or for the battle tomorrow. It won't affect my abilities tomorrow, so why are you so caring about this?" Cyn swore it wouldn't but that's not what Thel was talking about.

"Cynder...why I care about this so much is because I have my reasons for fighting the Brutes, many of them include defending you and the others, but the soul reason why I'm fighting them is so you can go on and live your life the way you want it, and the way you wanted it is to have hatchlings. That's why I'm fighting to protect you, but now! Gargh! curse the Prophets into an evil far greater than hell itself!" he threw his arms down in anger. Cynder knew Thel was gonna come to this sooner or later, and here it is.

"Arbiter, protecting me is one thing, but trying to protect my future is the same thing. You're defending me, therefore, my future. But for once, think about your own life ahead, stop worrying about mine all the time, I'm sure you did that before we even met!" Cynder was standing up for herself, telling Thel to not care about her all the time and decide for himself.

Thel's head lifted up, surprised that she was able to come out of the shadows and say that with all of his attention pointing towards her. He turned around with a dazed expression.

He cleared his throat first, "Sure I can think about own life ahead. Sure...I can do that. I could run away, forget about all this. But Cynder, my species is based around fighting, around honour. Both of those ridiculous things are the centre of attention with my people and it shall and always be a never ending cycle" Thel continued to go against Cynder's wishes, until she used her final counter to bring him into innocence.

"Vadam, you're starting to act like that Brute; you place honour as your first priority, you're own life in second...Are you willing to place a nonexistent creation in front of your own soul?" then it struck him, hard, harder than a life extinguishing asteroid hitting a docile little planet.

From his birth to this very day, the only thing that has kept him on track was his honour. It was this scared word that has kept him going into the flames of battle, but not into the waters of peace. His honour has always brought him close to death over a thousand times. He remembered that he told Cynder back at the revealing that Drektus placed the Prophets suicidal goals in front of family, now she was using this as a psychological weapon against him. It was mind blowing to him, having to sit against the stone building across from the infirmary and think about it for a moment.

"By the gods...you're right...my honour has been the cause of it all! The source of my troubles. The barrier of my life"

Cynder sighed, "C'mon Thel, you don't have to sit there and think about. Just...just drop it completely, or at least drop until you go back home" she was trying to make Arbiter let go of his grasp on honour, to think clearly ahead instead of sticking to one thing. He draped both of his hands over his face, feeling foolish for serving an imaginary image.

"Cynder" his hands covered his mandibles, making his voice muffled up, "the problem with forgetting about it, it's almost impossible. If I was a normal, low ranked elite, it would probably be easier. But I'm not a normal elite, nothing is easy, let alone simple. I'm an Arbiter, a rank that used to be so hated and so disgraced, now a symbol of honour. That part right there is why I can't forget about it" he took hold of his helmet and gracefully took if off.

He brought it around to see it's front. He has been wearing this helmet for some time now, but it hasn't even been a year and already, his soul has created a bond with this armour, to wear it for as long as he lived. But it did have its flaws and this was one of them.

"I don't know if being donned as the Arbiter was a good turn in my life or the biggest regret I'll ever live with. It has gotten me to an incredibly high status of my people, but slowly, it has torn piece by piece of my life. What can be done about it...what can I do about it?" Thel observed every detail of his helmet, changing its position, ending with the helmet staring at him.

Cynder placed her right paw on top of the helmet, sharing her concern for Thel's life. He noticed something different about the helmet at that moment. It felt like when she placed her paw on top of the helmet, like something changed within it. Arbiter couldn't put it on his finger, an unknown entity within the helmet just suddenly went away but in reality, nothing happened. It was so strange. Was Cynder's polite and kind heart changing Thel's future with the Arbiter armour or was it something else.

Vadam felt completely bewildered, even if nothing happened. The dragoness removed her paw and got a good look at Thel. She noticed his face wasn't the same as before, but she couldn't help but smile at his stupefied expression.

"Are you ok Thel?" she pleasantly asked. Vadam kept spinning it around, trying to find any differences from before Cyn touched. Failing to find anything, he shrugged his arms and rested the helmet back onto his head.

Feeling nothing, he assumed he was just day dreaming, "That was a little unusual" he tilted his neck left from right, needing to crack the neck a little bit.

"What was?" she asked optimistically.

Thel cleared his throat, "I don't know. I think I was just imagining things. It happens when you're away from home all these years, eh?" he smirked. She returned with an amused facial expression.

"Hmph, I wouldn't know, I'd never know. Besides the city, I never had a real home" she started to walk off without the Arbiter, but he stood back on his feet and caught up with her, walking along her left side.

"I meant homeworld. Then again, you're race isn't a space faring civilisation yet, so I guess that should count" he said with content.

"That's an obvious factor ain't it genius?" she replied with such a sarcastic attitude.

"Who do you think you are with that mouth?" Thel was quite annoyed that she talked back like that.

"A creature that is far smarter than you'll ever be" she grinned.

"You are really tearing out my nerves now" he firmly growled and this changed Cyn's so suddenly.

"I was joking, don't take it personally".

"So was I, I was trying to scare you. It worked" he accomplished something quite pointless, but felt proud of it. They turned around the corner and the infirmary was then out of sight.

"Hmph...(whispers) Grunt sucker..." she smiled deviously.

"What did you say?" Thel barely heard her voice, but heard it nevertheless.

"Oh nothing" she shook her head. His expression caused quite concern to her, but he looked back to in front of him, with Cynder getting away with what she said.

"Whatever. Cynder, remember when that one mole took Spyro's armour back to the blacksmith?" he asked her.

"Yeah, he also said that they've finished making that new armour set for me to wear. You want to head down there, don't you?" Cyn knew where he was going with this.

"I would like to see its completion, I've never seen dragon armour and this is my best chance to get a good look at the design. I want to compare it with mine" he requested to see the similarities and the differences between the Arbiter armour and Cynder's newly constructed armour.

"Um, Your race is a thousand or more years in front of mine when it comes to technology, I think what you're wearing is a little more resistant to what we have".

"That would be Darst's zealot armour. No, the Arbiter armour has been around for centuries, it's very old and ceremonial compared to the latest in equipment back on Sangehilios. Who knows, I'll probably be the first to start bleeding tomorrow and you would only have a few bruises" he smirked wittingly.

"If only the Brutes were that nice...alright then. Follow me, I know exactly where the place is" she insisted leading Thel back to the blacksmith, so both of them can see the final preparations of Cynder's battle wear.

Not far from where they were walking to, at a stylish building with the words 'Mole's delicacy' with yellow lights in patter of looking down and each other and away, the former Covenant group sat at the large table right in the centre of the large room, surrounded by other tables with many Moles of both genders and even little ones sitting at them. It was pretty large this room, even a large dragon could fit in this place with no problem, but the door wasn't large enough for a dragon of that size.

At the back was the kitchen where the meals are cooked up and the waitress' come out to take orders, much similar to what Humans do on their planet Earth. At the table, Darst sat at the end nearest to the kitchen, onto his left in the following order was Spyro, Jabjab, Yapflop and Tesk and one of the three blue Sangheili minor class, while on his right side in the following order was Ventor, another blue armoured Sangheili, and the blue armoured female Sangheili.

Her height was just slight lower than the other two minor classed males and her armour covered up her chest and lower area entirely. The blue males were just simply similar, at an average height for males.

"Finally, some time together that doesn't involve us in the think of battle or preparations. Quite surprising ain't it?" Darst fruitfully started a peaceful conversation amongst, almost completely unaware that they were the ones completely drawing attention.

"I think it was time we've come together like this, we really haven't gotten a proper introduction since the incident at the infirmary have we?" Ventor replied with kindness towards his zealot ally.

"No we haven't. As a matter of fact, I'd like to ask a question. It'd be nice to get to really know another warrior of honour around here. How come you only have one hand?" Kino was quite curious about the one handed Sangheili. Odesa looked at his blunt hand.

"I lost it to a Brute of immense strength, not quite as strong as this Magnaruckus we're up against, but he was still able to put up a good fight, tore it right off. I ended up putting a sword through the beast with my other functioning hand. It was an experience that even to this day I cannot rid of" Ventor exposed a little history behind the missing hand, already telling this to Arbiter and Cynder back on the Shadow. Kino seemed to have enjoy that little relinquishing of this revelation.

"Horrific, but heroic tale Ventor. Any of you elites have a little brief history to tell me?" the zealot warrior turned to the other elites, starting with Tesk.

"Young one? Anything from you're time with the Covenant could you tell me?".

Tesk got a surprise out of that, but without argument, he did as he was asked, "Well, to tell you the truth zealot Kino, I only recently joined the Covenant before the split happened. I never had much combat experience, I never fought with the Human's defences and I never participated in the ground battle on the surface of the Ark" he answered with politeness within his voice, even honouring Darst's title.

"And yet, you survived the crash of the Shadow and you pilot that Locust almost perfectly. I like this boy" Darst chuckled, for which he hasn't done in such a while. Raskar smiled took it as a complement.

"Ah, and the only female Sangheili survivor of the crash, what is your name and what brief part of history did you undertake?" he turned to the right and looked at the female elite of the group.

"My name is Veartra Mevlos, I was an engineer with the vehicles stationed aboard the Shadow since joining the Covenant. You males always got the fun on the ground, I had to do the more technical and vital jobs with space, planet bound aircraft and land vehicles. I joined 11 years ago when I was a bit young and since then, I've been a part of that Carrier...well until she was destroyed that is" Veartra lowered her, commemorating the loss of their beautiful and ship and strong crew.

"May she and the others rest for eternity. Thank you Veartra. And the one next to her is?" Darst looked at the elite next to her.

"Me? Oh um, excuse me, forgiveness. I am Savarsu Kortul, at your service zealot Kino" this elite was quite the warrior to Darst, surprised by the reply he was given.

"Stand down Savarsu, a disciplined warrior we have here. Any history you had with the Covenant proud warrior?" Darst rested his hands on the table.

"I joined the Covenant not just around a year ago, I served at the battle of Reach, fighting alongside many Covenant troops against the Humans. I was assigned to be a driver of a Wraith, I perform those tanks very well, aiding many troops in the bombardments. I rarely saw combat against the Brutes after the split, but I know I'm gonna get some tomorrow" Savarsu was well disciplined indeed, speaking so clearly to everyone around him.

Jabjab and Yapflop were mostly ignoring all this, but Spyro was listening crystal clearly.

"That we will my friend. It's good to have you on our side. And last but not least, you're name young warrior?" Darst to the last of the three minor class, but for some unknown reason, this elite did not speak. He has been all quiet this entire journey. Darst thought it was something he had done.

"Um, have I scared him?" he turned to Ventor.

"No, it's just that he's been through a little too much the war. He saw many of his friends die" Odesa said in a depressive mood.

"Oh, I'm truly sorry. Was it the Brutes that killed them?" Kino asked out of even more curiosity.

"No, not Brutes, not even Humans. He lost his many friends to the Flood, the parasite infected or killed them all. The group he was in had at least 128 elites, and the Flood took them all, except Tetrestu Goraared here. This all happened on the Ark might I add" Ventor felt terrible explaining Tetrestu's horrific encounter with the Gravemind's army. It would haunt him for the rest of his life.

"I'm still sorry. If I would've known, I would never have speak of it...it would be an honour to fight alongside you Goraared" Darst insisted for tomorrow's battle, but the elite still kept staring at the table, re-imaging that deathly event. The zealot warrior could see it in his eyes and so he let him be.

"Poor boy...at least those souls aren't being terrorised anymore" Kino shared his condolences for the losses of the Sangheili, who gave their lives to stop the Flood.

Back outside, Arbiter and Cynder were approaching the front of the Blacksmith. They were just about ready to open the doors, but the door suddenly opened for them, and right there was the same mole who told Cynder about the armour just before the speech Thel gave.

"Ah! I was wondering when you'd stop by miss. And I see you've brought the battle leader for tomorrow" the armoured up mole looked up to Thel. One thing suddenly appeared in his mind.

"How do you know that I'm an official battle leader for everyone tomorrow. I was never told about this".

"After that display near the infirmary today, I think it would've been quite clear enough to make a you our leader and battle coordinator against those muscled beefcakes. But pleasantries aside, I suspect miss that you'd like to see the armour we have created for you?" the mole had intercepted Cynder's desire to see the armour quite easily. She nevertheless stepped inside, followed closely by Thel.

"Let's take a look at it then" the dragoness insisted. The mole nodded, closing the door and leading the duo deeper into the building.

It was quite dark and dry within this place, as it rarely sees sunlight and only singing hot fires are used to make metal.

Passing multiple tables that had swords, spears, shields and crossbows on them, with many other moles working extremely hard to get it all done for the battle, using hot fires and small molten lava pots, the armoured mole, Cynder and Thel were coming up to another wooden door in front of them.

This wood looked quite ancient, protecting only the finest metal creations the moles have made, dragon armour included. The wood looked liked it has been scratched and damaged multiple times by different species, probably begging to get whatever they wanted in here.

"Behind this door miss is you're battle wear. Please, exhibit it and find out if it suits you or not" the mole ran up to the handle and, with some moderate difficulty, he pulled the heavy entrance backwards.

"I'm sure it would fit me...I hope" she did have doubt, but Cynder kept an open mind.

There it was, Cynder's battle protection. Resting on the table ready to put on at a moment's notice. It was a shiny silver marked set of dragon armour, the markings looked more ancient than the door itself, but made brand new. Her helmet could surround both of her eyes, like one of the helmets she wore during the war, but it took on a more fearsome approach with the thin but wide enough eye slits for Cynder.

Unlike the old amour she used to wear back in those days, this set had back protections, chest protection, top side tail and front and rear leg guards, all taking on that shiny new look. The markings could almost resemble Thel's Arbiter markings, they were a close comparison.

Vadam was the first to comment, "Impressive shine. Looks very protective...but does it fit you Cyn?" he crossed his arms and looked down at her.

"Only one way to find out"

**Right, here's the deal, I'm going on a plane trip tomorrow to Adelaide in South Australia. I should be able to work on the story there, but for the life of it, I only have a couple nights there. So it shouldn't take too long for the next one to arrive. Aside from all that, only 8 more reviews until 100 (squeels) Ahem, excuse me. The night is approaching the city fast. Better hope everyone spends a good deal of their life here before going into the fires of tomorrow. Till next time**


	50. Darst's truth

To make sure she would be comfortable wearing the armour around the battle, Cynder first needed to try it on and wear it around Warfang, to get the feel of wearing full body protection, unlike what she wore during the war. Though, as it had strong resistance, it wasn't all body protected though.

There were large leather buckles to connect the armour from one side to the other and all that had to be done on Cynder's underbelly area, from just passing her chest to down the base of the tail. Worse, there is are a couple of little holes exposing her magenta areas, which would make them a vital target for the Brutes to take her down, but this had to be implemented to give the dragoness some comfort.

All around her tail will be metal, as with her chest, but under her hips and around her soft stomach could still be penetrated. The black dragoness knew this was going to be a problem because Spyro had the exact same design configuration, which was why Shenko stabbed him with incredible ease.

Arbiter had volunteered to help Cynder put on her armour while the mole had to keep an eye on his own workforce, "Ok, there's a changing room outside on your right, that's where you two can put the armour on without a distraction" the black armoured mole pointed out, just standing outside the room where Cyn's armour was held.

"Ok. Thank you for pointing it out" Thel showed his appreciation.

"And thank you for putting in the time to create it warrior, you have my blessings" Cyn smiled, bowing her head at the black metal wearing mole.

"Nothing to it miss, I hope to see you on the field of battle tomorrow" he nodded, and got back to watching his warriors continue their work.

The dragoness looked up to her Sangheili friend, "hey Thel".

"Hm?" he looked down at her.

"If you're going to help me put on my armour for me, that means you'll also have to do up the buckles. You do know what parts those cover me up right?" she immediately raised a brow with the inclusion of asking such an oblivious question, but the mighty and noble Arbiter had done something just as close when he pulled the spikes out of the dragoness. He was used to it.

"I'll look away, just like last time" he chuckled in reply to her question.

She only stared at him whilst shrugging her wings, "At least you try to give me privacy".

"We're two different races, but we are also different genders, I have to" he walked towards the room.

Cynder followed in close behind him, "Of course, just stay true to your word, I was injured last time so I couldn't be bothered if you look there, but if you do, you're face will end up like Mag's face" Cyn assured Thel just that, looking back at her with feeling vulnerable.

"Is that a threat?". A small giggle closed her eyes, reopening them again, "more or less Arbiter" she smirked.

With a roll of his eyes, Arby was the first to enter this spacious room, carrying Cynder's armour in his arms. As soon as she came in, he got the armour in one arm for him to pull and close the wooden door. Blocked out from the rest of the hard working moles, he chucked the moderately heavy metal on the ground, unscaved by the cobblestones on the ground.

Cynder gazed very strongly down at her battle protection. All this metal was going to be between her and the many Jiralhanae spikers that will be fired into the air in an attempt to kill her. If those were going to bounce off, what about the plasma the Banshees weild? or the Brute shot grenade launchers? so many questions lingered within her mind regarding if she will be safe from harm.

"Thel...do you think this will keep me safe from all of Magnaruckus's army's weapons?" she quietly asked him. A low groan left his mandibles.

"Not every weapon Cynder. This armour is about as strong as what I wear. I doubt that this would resist multiple Brute shots" and this was sad news for Cynder. Anything above that damage and she'll likely be fatally injured or her armour would be wrecked.

"Great, I'll be dead within seconds once I confront those monsters" Cynder lowered her head down, knowing the survivability of the battle will be low for her.

"Not quite so Cyn, of course at close range, the speed of spiker ammunition is fast, and it will go through the armour and penetrate your skin, but at mid to long range, these will simply bounce off" Thel smiled, giving her some good news. Her head slowly lifted up with a positive expression on her face.

"Same goes for almost every other Brute weapon. Plasma loses heat at long range, Brute shot grenades will move slower and explode by themselves after some distance and beam weapons dim down after enough range" Thel sifted through the armour, examining each vital pieces of it, testing the resistance by simply tapping on each part.

"So, what you're saying is keep some distance away from their weapons" she concluded.

"Exactly, and you can fly as well. Jiralhanae weapons are not very well made and they never will be if those fools keep coming up with primitive designs" Thel cockily smirked, knowing the limitations of the Brute weaponry.

On another note, he was intrigued by the helmet the moles have made for Cynder. Remarkably well crafted and well designed, he wondered what it would look like on top of the dragoness's head

"Hmm...I have to say, the helmet here would suit you quite well, not just for head security...but for appearance" Thel's smooth voice flowed over the fearsome looking headpiece, the eye slits were just enough to make it look absolutely terrifying. Cynder came over to Thel's side to take a look at the headgear for herself.

"This looks almost exactly like the one I wore during the last couple of days during the war...minus the large of markings and shine" Cynder remembered this perfectly made piece of metal. It was a tight fit for her, but at least the orcs had a tougher time smashing her skull in with their clubs.

Thel looked at her with some optimism, then looking back the helmet. He instantly knew this was indeed perfect for her and will suit her needs for the battle against Magnaruckus and his savage army. There was no doubt in his mind that Cynder, besides Spyro, will be a symbol of hope and freedom for the mole defenders and the rest of Warfang. The dragons are their greatest allies, and these two will not fail them against such impossible odds. The overconfident Brute leader will underestimate Spyro and Cynder because of their small size compared to his mass...size won't even matter in this fight.

Thel spun the helmet back up to the eye holes looking at him, curving his head left to Cyn. She answered a question that wasn't even asked, nodding her head and allowing Thel to gently place the helmet onto her head. It concealed the symbols on her forehead, as well as the ones under her eyes. It started to cover the top layer of her skull structure, leaving only her bottom mouth unprotected. Covering her cheeks and nose, which had small holes for her nostrils to stick out from, her elegant eyes were the most exposed parts of her, but this allowed Cynder to completely see what was in front of her.

Arbiter gently pressed onto the helmet, securing a nice, comfortable fit for his small but powerful dragon ally. He pulled his hands away and carefully gazed around her almost concealed face. The helmet fitted Cynder's personality, her fearsome aggression to enemies, everything to mentally affect the battle around her. For it was antagonistic towards her enemies, it was still hope and freedom for her allies. Vadam couldn't help but smile at the sudden changed appearance of the dragoness.

"Well Thel? how does the head gear look on me?" she politely asked him, shifting her head around to give Thel a better look at her. His adoring smile said everything.

"You look...stunning with that helmet Cynder. A true dragoness warrior with that on, a fearsome attacker, an angel of darkness...without the dark stuff around you" Thel oh so spoke smoothly and beyond politely to her, speaking the bold truth. Cynder rested the bottom of her chin on her neck, absorbing the incredibly nice comments of the Sangheili warrior.

"Thank you" she appreciated what he said.

"Now...let's get the rest of it on you" the kind Arbiter picked up a shoulder piece of the set, "Shall we?".

Back at the restaurant, the elites were still having a nice, friendly conversation, relating to their battles back in the days of the great war. Spyro, who kept quiet in order to not disturb the high ranked elites, actually enjoyed hearing some of the stories these Sangheili warriors were talking about, listening to the great battles the Human-Covenant war had, to a more in depth feel of the Great Schism, the vicious fights against a parasite that was almost unstoppable. It was a much different and the galaxy itself was at the edge of annihilation from it.

Spyro only knew about the war with the Dark master from what he saw, he never got to see the great, nightmarish and unforgettable battles before he was born, where the many apes, Grublins and orcs overthrew the forces of good, freedom and justice, thinning them down to small resistance forces. Thrown against endless odds, these small forces were able to hold their ground for only a small period of time before they are discovered again.

When both Spyro and Cynder were born at the same time, the large scale fights had all been over. What Malefor had created over these generations should have him meet a fate worse than death, but there was almost nothing to stop him. Until one day, at his lair, Spyro and his companion, now his beloved, Cynder fought with the evil maniacal dragon to the death, sending him into the centre of the earth and barely stopping the end of the world. This was a day the purple dragon will never forget.

Reliving through his memories, Spyro was suddenly, and most certainly rudely, nudged out of his imagination zone by Yapflop, poking him with his shoulder, "Hey, are you ok? you look like you just got hit in the head by a rock...which I should try that with Jabjab, he he" Yapflop giggled to himself at this thought.

"I heard that" an arms crossed green Grunt replied ungratefully.

The orders for the meals were already made. All the elites had ordered the same thing, piles of cooked meat from different animals that live beyond the walls. The Grunts had asked for spaghetti like pasta, since their jaws were too fragile to chew anything harder than steak. These two also liked the idea on having the sauce 'surprise' the moles have put on to go with their food, which was exciting for them, considering Yapflop loved surprises.

Jabjab though, was restless, "Ung, they're taking too long, both the food and Arbiter! Shouldn't he be out of that tent by now?" the very unhappy grunt grumbled like an old man.

"Jabjab, he was beaten to a bloody pulp by creature twice his size! The least you can do is show some damned respect" Darst was a little infuriated by Jabjab's unexpected attitude, demanding the Grunt to close his hole. Jabjab crossed his arms in annoyance.

Yapflop was also slowly catching onto the boredom, so in order, he tried to kill time by talking to the silent Tetrestu, "So, what's your favourite song? I listened to a lot when I was still in the Covenant...when most of the big guys weren't around" Yapflop asked in the most politest way a Grunt could say, but to no luck, no word came out of the elite.

Yapflop lowered his eyebrows in disappointment. "Hey, c'mon Tet, stop being so dramatic with your total silence, draws a lot of attention around here you know" Yapflop nudged the silent Sangheili with his elbow, but still Tetrestu stared down upon the table like statue.

Ventor took notice of what Yapflop was trying to do, "It's not use young Grunt, would you be immensely traumatised if you saw a lot of your friends di-" Ventor stopped right there because he knew what was wrong with that sentence, and Yapflop raised a brow at it.

"Maybe I should just stop talking" he dropped the conversation.

"Yeah, maybe you should" Yappo grumbled.

"Odesa, did you just get put down by a Grunt? shame on you" Darst laid back on his chair.

"You didn't see the wrong part of my sentence did you?" he turned to the crimson zealot.

"Oh I noticed that bit, but you just let Yapflop here talk down to you as if he was your commander. That never happened the Covenant. We talk down to them, not vice versa" Kino was secretly teasing Ventor.

"Oh go swallow a Scarab" Ventor was displeased by this, but that to Darst was not a laughing matter. He lowered head down as a reaction to his worst nightmare. Odesa was surprised that affected Kino.

"Darst, I knew you was kidding, I didn't mean to offend you" his left hand rested on Darst's shoulder, but he grabbed it and pushed it back, not accepting his concern.

"No Ventor...it didn't offend me. It's just that...I haven't told you about my fear, have I?" then the sudden shock speared into Ventor.

"F-Fear? What fear? I thought all zealots feared nothing, not even death itself!" the red armoured captain exclaimed in surprise, grabbing everyone's attention, with the exception being Tetrestu.

"That changed when the convoy I escorted was attacked by 3 Scarab walkers. 3 of them! And each of them murdered my troops, eviscerated my tanks! Even the Humans were massacred, they're Scorpions barely had a chance before those Brute savages wiped them out!" Darst breathed heavily, just wasting his last pint of oxygen with that last sentence.

Ventor and the other elites were speechless. Yapflop was holding a metal utensil until he dropped it on the floor by accident, startled by the shouting zealot. Jabjab facepalmed himself, already knowing this fact about Darst. Even the moles were drawn to him by his deep voice. Kino looked around, becoming the centre of their attention and he suddenly felt embarrassment set upon him.

"Forgive me...I had no right to shout like that..." he clasped his face his hands, wiping some sweat he had created.

"What happened Darst. The whole thing" Spyro needed to know what really happened that, maybe it'd be best if he told the whole story.

He took a moment to think about this. It had crushed his soul when those Scarabs attacked and it'll only destroy his two hearts if he is much reminded of that day, but this wasn't the time to wallow in the darkness, now was the time to shed some light and fill these question filled beings with full details.

Darst sighed in.

(Flashback to the Ark, during a bright beautiful day, when a large convoy of Sangheili Wraiths, Ghosts, Spectres, a small number of Banshees and Phantoms, accompanied by human Scorpions, Warthogs and Hornets heading to the giant shield to attack where the Prophet of Truth was hiding and activating the rings)

_"I was part of convoy that the humans called Omega...convoy Omega, the death force of the Prophet of Truth. I was second in command of the entire battalion, 500 elites and 350 humans were assigned to it, and this force was the strongest and largest we had against the Brutes. Karuku Tarantu, the commander of the convoy was ahead of us, in command of an Anti-air Wraith. He was the gunner, I was the driver"_

The large number of vehicles all moved at slow pace, all the tanks were in the middle whilst lighter vehicles were at each side, ready to defend their more heavier and vital assets. In the dull golden Anti-air Wraith, leading the pack, Darst followed his commander's orders, who was wearing a completely white Field Marshall armour. Banshees, Hornets and Phantoms flew overhead circled around the platoon of vehicles, assisting them from the sky.

"Nice and easy now everyone, we're closing in on the Citadel. Once that shield goes down, we move in with striking force to destroy the defenders" the commander held up his hand, signalling everyone to go at a slower pace as they moved closer to the mountains.

"Karuku, are you sure we can get the tanks through those mountains? They're pretty large for that kind of terrain" Darst called out from under the hatch of the driver's seat, unsure if this was going according to plan.

"Don't worry Kino, we'll get through that obstacle with ease. Rest assured that this war will end with one swift strike from the Shadow and we go in and clean he whole damn place up by eradicating those traitors. The Arbiter and the demon will have that shield down soon" the commander's smooth, bold voice and his words sounded truthful, but doubt still remained in Dart's head.

The convoy continued without hesitation, anti gravity propulsions jets, wheels and treads conquered the grass and gravel as the convoy closed in even further to their, having to stop just before the shield itself and the mountains, and their target that lies before them. The Anti-air Wraith's driver hatch opened, with Darst pulling himself out to look at this Forerunner defence the liar had set up.

"But a mere roadblock Kino...the time has come for us to kill that bastard Truth...and avenge the blood that has been spilt because of him" Karuku wanted nothing more than to rip the Prophet's heart out then crush it with his foot, like crushing a cockroach.

Kino glared at this 'impenetrable' shield technology as they all waited patiently for Thel and the other strike teams to take it down. At that very moment, the colour began to dim, slowly being deactivated at the final tower is shut down. The commander took this moment to ready the convoy to barge on into the mountains.

"Mount up! On your vehicles everyone, the time has come!" Karuku readied his plasma turret, whilst tapping Darst on his right shoulder.

"Let's go Kino. Let's end this bloodshed. For our people" Karuku smiled, looking up to see the Shadow of Intent fly overhead. While everyone was getting back into their vehicles, the two high ranked elites looked up to the Citadel's end.

"Do it Shipmaster, kill him!" the white armoured Field Marshall urged their leader to destroy the building, until all of sudden, a slip space rupture opened.

"What the?" Darst couldn't describe what was coming through, but he had only two words for it, "High Charity? Isn't that Flood infested?".

The convoy watched overhead as a large piece of debris went though the Assault Carrier and disabling it's weapons, having to pull out from glassing the Citadel. High Charity continued overhead, passing over the convoy and were lucky enough to not receive any parasite infested debris. But an even more grave threat hovered high above the convoy, catching its share of the flood rocks. Karuku noticed it.

"BRUTE CRUISER, HIGH ABOVE US!" and when the commander shouted that out, 3 Scarabs were launched off from underneath it.

"_At that moment, the beginning of the end of that convoy had started. The first Scarab landed on our right side, the second one landing on the opposite side. The third one landed behind us, catching the fleet of tanks off guard and had a straight shot of destroying each and every tank in one...single...shot" _Darst had stated the positions of each walking menace, almost surrounding them all.

_"In one shot? If there were that many tanks, how were taken out in one shot?" _the purple dragon asked.

"_Spyro...the tanks were in a line...and the Scarab was directly behind all of us!"._

The 4 legged menace at the back charged up its primary weapon, attempting to take out each armoured vehicle. The commander knew this convoy was doomed and he had to rescue whatever he could...and Darst was the best individual he had and he wasn't letting his second in command get annihilated.

"DARST, JUMP OUT OF THE WRAITH, MOVE OUT" Karuku literally pulled Kino out of the driver seat and pushed him, with Darst accidently grabbing the commander's wrists and pulling him out of the gunner's spot.

As Scorpion cannons turned around, it was already too late. The beam had been fired and in a straight, single line, each and every vehicle that was in its path exploded, creating a devastating wall of burning tank fuel and plasma fire. Small mushroom like clouds risen up, leaving the destruction as the green beam of doom had just finished destroying the Anti-air Wraith.

The smaller vehicles had started scattering, Warthogs and Spectres were driving around like headless chickens, their plan had been sent into a black hole and no one knew what to do. The side Scarabs had started picking off the smaller vehicles, Warthogs were beamed until they were disintegrated Spectres were crushed and blown up by the piked legs, and the Ghosts were easy targets for the back rotating plasma cannon. A Spectre started flipping near Darst and Karuku's position, while it was burning.

The commander looked and watched the slowly dying Sangheili driver crawl out of the light armoured vehicle, his face showing parts of his skull. Darst too looked up and saw the horror with his own eyes, then looked back as the 3 Scarabs started murdering the remnants of convoy Omega. Kino spotted an unarmed human run away from the body count, but was suddenly beamed into oblivion, leaving nothing but ash and bone.

Darst swear he heard his dying scream, as well as everyone else's screaming around him and the commander. 15 Banshees and 12 Hornets attacked with all their might, trying to save what's left of their comrades, but were easily picked off by the cannons of the Scarabs.

Even the speed of these aircraft could not evade the plasma barrage. A Banshee that was hit twice lost the left wing and its entire back hood, sending the Sangheili attack fighter barrel rolling into the ground near Darst. He knew that this was one bloodshed they'll never survive without help.

"Commander...the convoy...its..." Darst could not say a word, nothing can describe the vicious carnage the Scarabs had created. Above, the Cruiser started to leave orbit of the Ark, attempting to escape the violent war between the Sangheili/UNSC alliance, the Covenant and the recent Flood, also leaving the mechanised walkers to finish the job on their own.

"...Those...those monsters...how dare they do this!" Karuku was barely able to stand, slowly attempting to get upright. Kino also tried getting up, as the commander watched everyone die in front of his eyes.

"They're dying...and there's nothing we can do" Darst watched as the terrifying machines annihilate the rest of them one by one. All air support had failed and the onslaught would continue without further interruption. The screaming, the burning, the dying, all had been absorbed into the zealot's mind.

He looked at the closest Scarab to see it turning around towards their position. This was it.

"Commander..." Darst told him, but Karuku already saw their impending doom staring at them, charging its weapons to kill the elites where they stood.

"It's been a great honour fighting alongside you Darst Kino" the commander expressed his spirit towards the zealot.

"Likewise...Karuku" Kino replied. They both stood there, not even trying to avoid this inevitable attack.

"Yes...now...go...and live on!" Karuku immediately pushed Darst out of the way, becoming the only target to succumb to the Scarab.

Darst was instantly shocked and surprised, getting himself off to watch in horror as his superior, his friend, die in such a terrible way. He shook as he stood up, his arms spread out as the green plasma beam engulfed him entirely.

"COMMANDER!" Darst reached his hand out for the elite, but those high pitched screams told him to back off.

Karuku's entire body started burning off, the armour, the skin, the muscles, the internal organs, all burned off and leaving nothing ash and bone. The Scarab had stopped firing and the Sangheili skeleton fell done like a tower of blocks. Darst dropped to his knees, having to be tortured by what he saw. His hands shook like it was an earthquake happening inside him, his eyes were traumatised like nothing he had ever had. This would forever scar him for life.

"Karuku...commander..." the tears started coming out of the battle hardened zealot. Nothing that he saw during the war would never come as close as to what he just saw.

Darst looked up to see the Scarab staring right at him. Nothing could be done now, he couldn't do anything but accept this fate and end up like his good friend. The 4 legged monstrosity started charging its gun again, and Darst knew this is the end for him.

"Why...did we ever create these machines" Kino stuttered, afraid of dying by this Scarab.

Just as it was about to finish him off, a large cannon like ammunition blasted through the entire Scarab, catching off guard and send into rolling onto the ground, exploding in the process. Darst's eyes opened even wider and looked around to find wherever the shot came from. The Forward unto Dawn had the Scarabs in sight, firing it's MAC cannon at the next Scarab, blowing that up whole and leaving the legs onto tumble down.

The third, the one that destroyed the tank line, tried it's shot at firing at the frigate, but wasn't able to charge it's beam up in time before the MAC fired right into its head and causing another massive explosion. The Human vessel had just saved Darst, one of the few survivors of the entire convoy of 500 elites and 350 humans, as well as many light, heavy and air vehicles. Pelican dropships and Phantoms were coming in to collect and salvage whatever survived slaughter.

Darst watched both a Pelican and a Phantom come to get him, where he also collapsed to the ground and closing his eyes.

_"I was unconscious after all that. I was brought onto the Shadow where I needed medical aid, even if I never caught one single fatal injury. That's what happened to the convoy...that's what happened to my commander and friend...that's why, and still to this day, I'm afraid of Scarabs" _Darst concluded his story about why he feared the Scarab walker.

(End flashback)

Spyro's jaws had been open for almost the entire story. It was almost unbelievable to him that Scarabs would do such things and it makes him think what Magnaruckus's Scarab would do to Warfang. The two Grunts couldn't say a word, no insult came to them, no funny thing popped up, no jokes they could make of this. Ventor, Tesk, Veartra, Savarsu all had their mandibles dropped, saddened to hear this terrible tragedy ever exist, and feeling very sorry for Darst who was a part of it.

Even Tetrestu lifted his head and was staring at Darst. Having a similar experience, he knew what it was like and he now knew he wasn't the only to have lost so to an enemy unlike any other. Maybe he could benefit fighting side by side with Darst against the Brutes tomorrow.

Back in the Blacksmith, Thel had just finished suiting up Cynder, connecting the last buckles of her armour on her belly. He got through the 'part' with ease and now, clicking he last button in, Cynder had her entire armour set on her body, becoming fully protected.

"Ok Cynder...you can stand up now" He stood up to get a better look at his dragoness friend.

Rolling to her side and getting on all four paws, she felt the sudden heavy weight she was carrying. Her body could carry this armour across much land while just walking. Flying would be a little more harsh on her wing muscles, but that would be something she'd had to get used to.

Thel was suddenly surprised at what she looked like with the metal on her. The armour almost resembled his, especially the markings. Whether this was a mistake made by the moles or not, it looked convenient enough to resemble this. The moles had purposely done this as they had been seeing her with Thel most of the time and thought it was appropriate to resemble his design for Cynder to wear. The helmet was the only difference.

Her tail was encased in armour, sitting against her scythe blade to not show a single speck of scale. Only her claws, her bottom jaw, her wings and her eyes were the only spots where armour didn't cover up. A small portion of her underbelly was covered but only by the buckles. Even then, the small holes didn't help either. Still, Cynder span around giving Thel a better view of her.

"So, how do I look now?" Cynder asked as her tail slowly curved around her. Vadam chuckled.

"You look like a Dragon version of me Cyn".

**So terribly sorry it took so long, the trip to Adelaide did not give me an inch of a chance to write so it took me around a week to complete this but it was worth it. I had to give more story on Darst's background to make him a more interesting character than just being a big bad brute (no pun intended). I'm sure this had done the trick. So damn close to that 100 reviews, it's inevitable! All right then, till next time everyone, and be sure to check out my devart account and my new youtube account, PM me if you want to have a look at those.**


	51. Coming to dinner?

Cynder looked astounding in her armour. The markings that have been engraved into the armour remarkably resembled Thel's armour in almost every way. The overall design was different, with obvious restrictions between the two species, but the symbolic lines were without a doubt almost perfectly the same. She doesn't have the large piece on her right shoulder like Thel has, instead has similar shoulders guards with the same symbols of the Arbiter's arms.

Not only that but her helmet has gone through some modifications, that being it is the same design she used to wear during the war, but has Thel's helmet lines as well. Bringing it all together, she was the Arbiter of her kind, given with the sole purpose of protecting everyone she knows and cares for, fighting for freedom, justice and peace.

"You are indeed fit for battle Cynder. You should be proud to be wearing that for tomorrow's final conflict against Magnaruckus and his foolish army" Thel complemented Cynder's attire. He especially liked the fact that it mirrored himself in dragon form.

"Was it just purely coincidental that the moles made it like this?" she turned to Vadam, seeing if he knew anything about it.

He crossed his arms, "I find that very unlikely. We've spent so much time together now, it's been quite noticeable. They must've looked into my design the day I came here, and so when these moles have started noticing our conversations, they decided to make a dragon version of my armour and fit it onto you for whenever you have to fight a great threat...but, that's just my guess" he shrugged his shoulders at the end of his sentence, having to state only one option. She smirked, siding with that conclusion.

She span around multiple times, curving her head right and left to get a better look at herself. Cynder was amazed how she look, but she still wanted to see herself better. She turned to Thel and asked him a small favour.

"Hey, could you please get a mirror for me, I want to see how I look from your perspective" she asked with the politest of manners.

Vadam chuckled, breaking the cross on his arms, "What, is it annoying having to spin around like that?".

"Hey, I have 4 legs and it get's irritating enough when you can't really see all of your body" Cyn was quite annoyed that Arby was amused from what she was just doing.

"Settle down dragoness Arbiter, I was only teasing, I'll go get it. Be back in a second" Thel opened the door and left the room to go find a mirror for Cyn, leaving her with another annoying but somewhat nice discriminating comment of her appearance.

In the meantime, she lifted up her left paw to look at her leg protection, then swinging her tail around to gaze upon her metal covered skin. She looked like a machine built to kill without a small glimpse of her skin. She still couldn't believe in the level of detail the moles had put into it. She thought that they worked a whole day to produce it, but with this much work put into an armour of her length and all these symbols put together, they're must've been more than 15 moles that worked on this while she and the others were gone. The time and effort they put into it is definitely worth it.

"I can't believe it begins tomorrow. Everything is set up, the weapons of war are at the ready...and we came back from the Shadow with all we need to stop the Brutes. It's surprising what we've been capable of all this time" Cynder was reminiscing about how prepared they were for the attack, as well as reminiscing the past few days. The dragoness was surprised that she and the others have survived the number of events that's lead up to this moment, apart from one special and utterly devastating lost. Her wings and tail dropped down as she started remembering Shin's death, for it was a tragic one indeed.

Thel walked back in with the mirror and closing the door so the moles still couldn't see within the room. It was half his size with as an oval shape in the centre, with some very ancient dragon culture like architecture to go with it. He lowered it down for Cynder. She gazed into the reflective surface, looking at the many parts of her image. A hopeful smile was put onto her face, noticing the similarities between her and Thel's armour.

"I...I look like you..." she sounded so pleased with what she wore, looking through a window that had a copy of herself standing right before the dragoness, looking down and around it.

"He he, well not quite, but it's the closest you'll probably ever get to being me" Thel grinned down to her, putting the mirror aside and against the wall. Cynder raised her paw, staring even more at the armour she wore, unable to get over how well detailed it was.

"You really enjoy wearing that don't you?" Thel's smooth tone said to her.

"I love it, it has to be one of the best sets of armour I've ever worn. And the buckle material on my belly is actually quite soft" she flapped her wings multiple times to check if she can still move them properly without the metal getting in the way.

"It's fits me much better than some of the other stuff I've worn as well, I feel much more cozy and secure. Heh, I just love it!" she jumped two times and ran around the room, getting the feel of wearing the armour. She lifted off from the ground hovered in the one place, feeling the weight bear down on her. It wasn't as heavy as she expected it to be, but it still felt like she was carrying half a ton of bricks on her. She landed gracefully back on her feet.

"And there's the catch" she turned to Thel.

"What's that?".

She stretched her back, spreading out her paws and extending her claws, "Mmm, ahh, it's a bit heavy on my wings...I guess I do have to get used to carrying the weight then" she retracted everything back after stretching her body.

Thel couldn't help but take his eyes off how she looked in that suit of protection. After all the time he spent with her, along the plains of the earth, inside the city limits, around the doomed Shadow of Intent, he considered Cynder something else than just a friend. But if he told her that she wasn't just a friend, how would she react? Was going to be kindly positive, or a negative outrage.

Cynder noticed the strange expressions on his face, bewildered by how strange it looked, "Thel, is something wrong?" the greatly concerned dragoness asked her kind hearted Sangheili friend.

What was he supposed to say in reply? If he told Cynder how he felt about her, what if she took it the wrong way. If she did, Cyn would be very much freaked out, when he was actually talking about family. Should he tell her? There's too much writing on the wall. It's all scribbled and scratched, and he was barely able to bring up the courage to talk to her for the first time.

"Are you in your own world or something?" Cynder finally got him out of his fantasy prison, grabbing his full attention and sitting against the wall, his bottom laying on the cold dirty cobblestone ground. He looked at the approaching dragoness, with some words finally climbing up his throat.

"Cynder...after all we've been through together...knowing each other's past events and learning the rights from the wrongs...I've been wanting to tell you this for some time" Thel slowly start confessing about what he's feeling towards her,

"What is it?" Cynder kindly asked.

Thel took in a deep breath, "I have considered you to be...someone very special to me. You already knew that Rtas's death had devastated me to the core. Whilst I thought of everyone else, like the Spartan, as a friend, Rtas was a true brother to me, a family member. Since he's gone, I've got no other family members to turn to, I don't even know if my mother and father survived throughout the war, it's been decades" Thel continued to let it come forward, but in turn, it was still stuck.

"What about times when you called the other Sangheili brothers, wouldn't they be close to you as well" Cynder was recounting the times when he said the word to Darst, Shin and many others.

"No, it's usually our term for calling each other friend. It's complicated, but once you understand our culture truly, you'll understand why" Vadam didn't want to go in depth about that subject.

"I think that'll take a while. In what way am I special to you?" her smile increased Thel's confidence to let it out. He lifted his right hand up, caressing her left cheek line under her eye. It was surprise she didn't expect, but the dragoness really liked being petted by Thel. She felt like a hatchling again, just feeling a sort of affectionate touch by him.

"Mmm...so how special am I to you?" she was out of her small trance and returned her attention to Thel. He was finally able to bring it out.

"Cynder...you're like a true sister to me...a family member. You seem so innocent, yet you're strong willed and capable of yourself. Powerful, confident and very, very beautiful. And, just from how you look, you're just coming into your teen years. You're still a young dragoness, but you a have bright future ahead of you. I'm still staying true to my promise I made to you a couple of days ago, I'll still defend you till I have died doing so" Thel had expressed it all, he has never felt so embarrassed in such a long time. Cynder was beyond shocked and astonished, her bottom jaw dropped from it all. As much as it seemed like a weird proclamation, she thought long and hard about the benefits of being quite close to an elite.

"You...you really mean that? how am I like family?" Cynder's was beating quite fast for some reason, why was she acting like this? he didn't say anything too drastic, what's going on?

"You're the closest one I have to family...we're different on the outside...but not on the inside..." Thel could feel his two hearts beating right against his chest, feeling each and every pulse.

"Because of what we experienced in the past before seeing the reality...I was evil against my own race, you were evil against the humans...then some years later, the truth is dropped on top of our heads..." Cynder recounted past things that both of them have done terribly throughout the years.

"As much as I enjoy talking with the other elites Cynder, you are someone very special to me. You and Spyro want to live how you two want it to be, and Magnaruckus desires the opposite. I'm not letting him lay a finger on either of you" Thel placed his hands on the top of her front shoulders. Cynder's eyes widened, looking directly into Arbiter's.

"When he comes, stay away from Magnaruckus. He will kill you if he gets the chance. He's mine to deal with, I don't want you interfering and getting killed, I...I'd kill myself..." Thel is already as protective as Spyro, taking any measure to defend this dragoness from any threat to her. But Cynder disagreed strongly.

"No! That's someone you're not fighting alone, he's as much of enemy to me just as he to you, he's tried to kill me and Spyro, threatened to make our race go extinct, and he's leading the army to come and destroy this city, a city that the moles and dragons have worked so hard to build! Don't think you're running to be the hero, I want to fight him too!" and Cynder wasn't let Thel get away with this one. She wanted payback and revenge for Magnaruckus's goals of genocide and savagery, he was to die for his crimes against the dragons and this world.

Thel let out a long deep sigh, "If you truly want to fight him...I can't stop you...but I will be alongside you to defeat him, he has killed Rtas, he's killed the crew, he's responsible for everything that's happened to us. Killing him will give me the biggest sense of relief since killing Truth. I just can't allowed to watch everyone die around me".

Cynder saw the stress and frustration Vadam is suffering from. She attentively slid her wet tough around both sides of his face, easing the tempering emotions that frightens him and angers him. Arbiter had always enjoyed this sense of care coming from the dragoness. She positioned her mouth just against the right side of his face, to let her hear what the dragoness has to say.

"I've never known to have a sibling Thel...but I trust you enough, and care about so much to take you up as...my brother" Cynder rested her against Thel's, metal against metal, flesh against flesh. He could feel her warm breath flow upon his face, being so soothing and relaxing. It was a friendship and a trust that could never be broken between them.

Cynder pulled back to let Arbiter get back up, brushing the dust and dirt off of himself, "Well, I've think we spent enough time in here. Let's go show everyone else your new...'attire', shall we?" Thel opened the door for Cynder, smiling back at her.

She tucked in her wings and passed by Thel out of the room, allowing him to walk out and close it. The moles turned and saw the brilliant armour they made for, watching how she moved in it. The black armoured mole ran up in front of her,

"So what do you think miss? a perfect fit? not too heavy?" He was quite curious to know how they're work was going with her.

"Don't worry captain, it fits perfectly and I can get used to the weight. Besides, it isn't that heavy when I walk around with it, flying might be though" Cynder curved her head around to look at the bases of her wings. She knew obviously they could only take her so far but luckily she would only be flying around the city.

"I'm sure you'll get used to that miss. I shall not bother you anymore, I bet you're very busy spending whatever time you have before the Jiralhanae show up " he stood aside to let them pass freely. Cynder waltzed on by him, but not before she gives her appreciation.

"Thank you all, for giving in the time to make this for me. Try not to get in trouble tomorrow" she called to all of them. The furry equipment makers all turned and waved, even replying to her.

"No trouble dragoness"

"Take care!"

"Why does she look like the elite?" one of them whispered to the other.

As Cynder made her way to the exit, Thel lowered his head down to the leader in charge of the whole group.

"Hey, did you purposely make her armour look like mine in a way?" Arbiter whispered to the mole's hear.

"You'd be surprised of how we learn these things...of course, I don't think the others knew about it, I just gave the orders and the engravings. Good luck defending our city great and noble Arbiter, we're all counting on to lead us to victory" he whispered back, giving Thel even more self esteem to wipe out Magnaruckus and his army. He smiled and nodded to the black wearing mole, got back up to his level and followed the elegant dragoness outside.

Leaving the blacksmith, they both noticed the sky was very close to becoming fully dark, with a bit of dark blue over most of the area, with tints of light blue far away where the sun was setting. Outside was getting cold, with most inhabitants of the city getting indoors, escaping the freezing breeze. For it didn't bother Thel, it affected Cynder quite effectively, maker her shiver her black scales.

"Brrr! If there's one thing this armour doesn't provide, it's that it doesn't provide perfect warmth" her wings wrapped around the front of her, trying to stay warm, but it didn't do much for the rest of her body at the back.

"We won't be long out here, I'm sure there'll be something around here that'll give us a hint about where the others are" and he was right. When they got around to the diner where everyone was, little Yapflop was sitting out the front singing a very unfitting tune.

"It's the end of the world as we know it! It's the end of the world as we know it! It's the end of the world as we know it! And I'm scared of dying! Huh? ARBITER! SILNDER! YOU'RE HERE!" He got up and ran towards them, filled with joy to see Thel in his prime again. Cynder was still annoyed that the little grunt still couldn't get her name right.

"How are you little Yapflop, you seem very different without that mask on your face" Thel has never really seen the grunt up close without the methane apparatus on him.

"Yapflop, it's nice to see you and all, but please learn that my name is CYNDER" she made it very clear to him about it.

"YES SYNDE-, I MEAN CYNDER! I've to stop that...wow, you two look...almost...similar. Is that new armour?" he asked the dragoness politely, trying to forget his naming mistake.

"It is, I just got it on. What do you think?" Cynder spun around to give the orange grunt a better look at her.

"You look very pretty with it on...did I just say that?" he was a bit stunned he said that to her, he rarely complements Cynder in anyway. She took his response with some surprise, but with a little blush.

"Oh, thank you" Cyn tilted her head, accepting the positive reception. Thel then decided to step in.

"Well, minor reunion aside, I'm taking a guess everyone else is in here" Thel looked up at the entrance to the diner. Yapflop nodded his head very quickly.

"Yeah! I don't know if the food that we've ordered is ready yet, but whatever, I'm sick of outside. C'mon!" Yapflop ran back inside, giving Thel and Cyn some wide eyes, witnessing quick speed and reaction from him.

Inside the perfectly designed structure, Yapflop burst through the door, capturing the Sangheili table members by surprise. To his annoyance though, the food has already been given to them, and none of them went to alert Yapflop about it.

"Hey, Jabjab, why didn't you come out and tell me you guys were eating?" he was still keeping the door wide open for the approaching Arbiter and Cynder, which Darst and everyone else couldn't see because of the outside darkness.

"I thought you smelt grub 10 miles away Yapflop, surely you would've known" Jabjab opened up his bottom jaw and swallowed down a mouthful of the pasta he and Yapflop ordered, even taking some of his food for himself. The sauce surprise he had was a spicy chilli sauce, being hot enough to burn someone's tongue.

"Not if my nose frozen from the cold outside! AND STOP EATING MY DINNER, I'LL EAT YOU IF YOU KEEP GOING!" Yapflop threatened cannibalism at Jabjab, pointing one right grunty index finger at all green, no fight. Ventor raised his left hand and stopped this pointless argument.

"Enough, Jabjab, stop eating his food or we'll take yours away and you'll go hungry for the rest of the night" Odesa warned him with such a firm and spine grabbing voice. Jabjab crossed his arms in disappointment.

"Yes dad!...I see elites haven't really changed since Covie days..." he mumbled to himself, his beady little eyes staring at the one handed captain.

"(Sigh) Sometimes, you need to teach Unggoy manners. Yapflop, why are you standing there, aren't you coming to join us?" Veartra kindly wanted to know.

"Oh, because we have reoccurring people! Take a look!" Yapflop stood aside against the end of the door to show the entering Thel Vadam in all of his glory, back up to full strength from his injuries, and Cynder, the beautiful but deadly dragoness in her new armour. Darst's mandibles dropped with eyes rounded like dishes. Spyro turned to see why everyone was surprised about and spots his Cynder in her metal battle protection.

"Good evening everyone, having a good time I see?" Thel noticed the stunned faces on each table member.

"Do my eyes deceive me? Where did the smaller Arbiter come from?" Ventor could barely recognise Cynder under all that steel. Jabjab looks at his food with the spicy sauce on it.

"I've got to lay off this stuff..." he quietly pushed it away.

"Whoa, one large Arbiter, one small Arbiter" Savarsu scratched the back of his head.

"You idiot, you haven't noticed the wings have you? It's Cynder under that. She looks gorgeous in that suit of armour" Veartra commented politely on Cyn's new set of attire. Tetrestu was still silent as ever, staring at two major icons of both races.

"Thanks" Cyn heard the comment clearly and responded with a smile.

"Well, this indeed a surprise, wow! Incredible suit of armour Cynder, besides size and species difference, you look like an Arbiter yourself!" Darst had the same thought as Vadam did, thinking of Cynder as an Arbiter of her kind. Thel looked down at her with a more or less cocky smirk, and she raised a brow in reply.

Spyro jumped out of his seat, leaving his plate of meatballs and well done steak to see the love of his life up close with the armour. He couldn't believe how resilient she looked, how magnificent she stood with a ton of metal she carried. Her emerald eyes followed Spyro coming closer to her, knowing that loving look she's always seen from the purple dragon. He stood in front of her, his eyes glaring at every inch of new look. She looked protected, entrusted with its safety, yet she still looked strikingly lovely.

"You look...fascinating Cyn...fit for battle" He finally gave his opinion about the armour she wore, getting a face full of blush. She was glad that the helmet was covering parts of it.

"You're always a sucker for how I look Spyro" Cynder's smile at the end of her sentence made him chuckle.

"Heh, I guess you're right about that...but it's like a whole new you! You wear the same type of armour Thel wears" Spyro spotted the very same similarities between the two.

"The moles sort of did that intentionally, copying the layout and design as well as the engravings. They did they're very best making it for her and it came out very well in the end. I gotta give them credit. Still, they probably did it because of much time we've spent together since the crash" Thel told him the reason behind Cynder's armour, all of it starting to make sense. Spyro then received slow but affectionate lick across the right side of his face, feeling a bit dazed from it. She giggled from his reaction.

"C'mon lover boy, let's go sit at the table" Cynder got her wing behind him and pushed the dragon closer to where he was first sitting.

Arbiter, before taking a seat, had the strange but unwanted sense of danger in the back of his head, as if something was going to happen tonight.

"The battle is tomorrow though...something doesn't feel right at all" he whispered to himself. Thel ignored it any further and followed close behind the two dragons.

**OH...MY...GOD, everyone, I am so, SO sorry that this took so long, I'm sorry if this wasn't worth the wait but thanks to this ear infection thingo behind my right eardrum, it's been making me go to the doctors quite a bit, and not only that, SCHOOL IS BACK ON FOR ME! damn it all (sigh). Again, sorry for the wait, even if it wasn't worthy. I hope you enjoyed the chapter anyways, and start to think what's gonna happen to everyone. 3 quarters of a way there folks! (or less)**


	52. Food, friends, sharing, war

The moles were able to fetch Arbiter and Cynder two seats for them, enabling the both of them to sit next everyone else. The dragoness went right next to her purple pride and joy, with Yapflop being on the other side of her. That was until the little grunt decided to let Thel sit between him and Cynder. Everyone on the Grunt's side of the table had to make room for them, moving over to the side a bit. With the entire group now fully reunited, Darst decided to comment her armour.

"That's perfectly structured protection you're wearing dear Cynder, you look fantastic" he spoke with a gentlemen type language. Her lips shown a smile.

"Thank you, it means a lot coming from you Darst" she replied.

"I bet all of Yapflop's organs that those moles copied Arbiter's armour markings and stuff to make that, I bet each and every one of them" Jabjab disliked her armour's design, a bit unhappy that it was copied. And placing a bet with Yap's insides.

"Hey! I just want to let you know that I like to keep them inside me thank you" Yapflop held in his chest in place.

"Well you're right Jabjab, they did copy his design and made a dragon version for me" Cynder started explaining, "They looked into his armour when the elites first came to the city and they were very intrigued about how it looked. They didn't tell me much about how they exactly created this but they noticed how much me and Thel spent much time together since we first met, so they must've decided to make me a 'Dragon Arbiter' with this get-up".

Ventor raised a brow and made a low hum, "Hmm...it would be the most logical explanation. I'm surprised the furballs were actually able to copy the markings, it's hard enough for some Sangheili armoury creators to even reprint Arbiter armour from the ages. They have to look off pictures these days" he had a good old chuckle from the last words of his sentence.

Thel was starting notice that his Sangheili brethren seem a lot more happy and peaceful without the fogs of war surrounding their minds. It felt different, and he liked watching the others have conversations like this. It put a graduate smile on his face.

"Well, in any case, it's good to see Thel still up and running as always. How's the chest?" Odesa looked concerned when he noticed the stitches of Thel's chest. No matter how much of his armour was covered up, some of it could still be seen, just like his mark of shame.

"Asides from the common itching of these stitches, I feel renewed and ready for anything. I have to get rid of these tomorrow morning though".

Spyro raised a brow, "But tomorrow morning is the beginning of the battle, you have to go to the infirmary just as it starts?".

"Unfortunately, I have to. Clin said my ribs are fragile to being broken, but they're repairing quickly. Unless I wanted to fight Brutes with them, the stitches have to come out" Thel replied. He knew these people expected him to lead them against Mag's forces. If he was out of action for the time being, who would lead them?

Cyn decided to throw in on her suggestion, "Can't you get them out tonight? or maybe just as the sun's coming up?" she needed him to be by her side, not sitting on a hospital bed while the moles cut and pull small pieces of rope on Arbiter's chest.

"I'm not too sure, he didn't say it was specifically tomorrow morning, so I could persuade him to do it before the rising sun" He steadily sat back on his chair, feeling nice and relaxed.

"Hmph, either way, I'm happy that we're all here together now" Darst finished up his meal, pushing the plate away, "Mmm, that wasn't half bad. I give my appreciation to the moles for serving dinner to us" Kino looked behind him to see the cooks hearing his compliment, bowing in thanks.

"Arbiter sire?" Savarsu wanted to ask his superior something.

"Call me Thel, I'm only called the Arbiter during battle" he insisted.

"Only 85% of the time Arbiter" Cynder smirked.

"Ha ha, she made a funny..." Jabjab sarcastically said whilst pointing at her.

The dragoness turned to him with narrowed down eyes, sending the blunt side of tail tip into the back of his head hitting him with enough force to make him face first into his food. Cyn exposed a satisfied smile and a good row of sharp teeth.

"HA! NOW THAT'S FUNNY! HA HA HA!" Yapflop fell off his chair laughing, holding in his chest and rolled around like an immature little child. This little shenanigan caused everyone else to have either crack up laughing.

A muffled voice could be heard through the pasta, "I hate all of you".

"Ah, that was pretty good, good going" Thel padded Cynder on the shoulder.

"Yeah, I hope we see another one of those soon" Spyro looked at her.

"Don't get your hopes up all purple and glory..." the muffled Jabjab voice spoke once again.

"He he he. Well that was great, but you still haven't answered my question" Savarsu tried to get Thel's attention again.

"Forgive me umm..." Thel has not known the names of the other survivors yet.

"Savarsu Kortul, his name is, he's a good warrior. And these other two are Veartra Mevlos, a former engineer, and Tetrestu Goraared, the last survivor of some 128 elites that were sent down during one of the Ark battles with the Flood. He's the silent type..." Ventor revealed their names to Thel. Cynder also knows their names now.

"It's such an honour, and a pleasure to meet you Thel" Veartra kindly greeted Arby.

"As to you Veartra" Thel spoke like a gentleman to the only female of the survivors. He looked at Tetrestu but since he was the quiet one, Arbiter left him alone to his thoughts. Vadam looked back at Savarsu.

"What was your question warrior?".

"I wanted to know your thoughts about the humans, and our alliance with them" the minor armour wearing Sangheili asked a topic that has never really been talked about since the Ark's destruction.

"That's...an unexpected one" Darst commented in.

"I thought that since Thel fought with the demon and other humans, I'd wanted to know his opinion on them and how our alliance would work out with them" Savarsu explained his reason to everyone.

"Well...if you really want to know, I need to eat something before I say a word, I'm starved" Arby needed some grub to swallow down, having nothing to eat for such a while, and now was the best time.

Ventor passed his plate over, still covered in cooked meat, "Here, you can have mine, I don't want any more".

Thel grabbed the plate and gulped down as much as he could to have a full stomach. Cynder widened her eyes by how quickly he was eating it, she'd have thrown up after the first two pieces. He didn't even chew his food.

A loud burp echoed through the room, "Ah...much better. Now, my opinion on them. The humans are a very strong race, they're capable of many things; commanding ships with disciplined officers, brave and confident troops and nice production line of vehicles. But what strikes me most is that they inherit many cultures" He began telling everyone his throughs about Humanity, detailing aspects of them from what he's seen.

"Whilst we only have one culture streamlined through different methods, they have their own religious beliefs throughout their race, many different ones. They've evolved through massive amounts of technology, and they didn't even need Forerunner tech do get it. Their fighting skills up close are just as good as ours, though we won most close quarter battles with them because we had swords, other fights we lost was just to their shotguns".

"Grr, I hate those things!" Yapflop rudely interrupted.

"Shh!" Spyro shushed him up.

Thel continued, "Still, they're strong and valiant warriors, and they have their own beliefs, unlike what we had during the Covenant. It's no wonder why the Prophets considered them heretics at the start of the war, because of what they knew about the humans at the time. They're military may have been massive, but the war did drastically reduce it to smaller numbers. Same goes with us, though they could've built bigger ships to match with our Assault Carriers...some of them are just too small for my taste".

"Well you know what they always say, the bigger the better" Veartra grinned.

Arbiter smiled at her, "Still, they were decent vessels. Although humanity is a strong willed race, I wouldn't go as far as to say they were totally peaceful...many centuries ago, while the Covenant gained strength, the humans had wars with each other, many more wars that even outnumbered ones we had with each other. Darst, you might have saw this just before We really made first contact with them" He looked directly at Kino.

"Indeed I did" the zealot confirmed this, "a number of human rebels fought the main UNSC army, believing they could free their worlds from the military. I watched one of those battles before we attacked the planet itself" Darst may have been young, but he could remember the small firefight between UNSC soldiers and rebellion fighters.

"Exactly my point" Arby approving it, "I remember one of the senior humans telling me about a large war they had on their own world, a little long before they had achieved colonisation and space travel. A war they called World war 2, and it resulted in 60 million lives lost, military and civilian".

"That must've been bloody...World war 2? there was a number 1?" Cynder was suddenly very curious about human history.

"He didn't tell me anything about that war, it was of a smaller scale, but it must've also been terrible. As good allies as they are, they're motives are...unpredictable...we have control of our governments most of the time, but they don't" Arbiter shook his head, knowing the humans have a very violent past.

"We're no different Thel, I don't think any species is. Evolution through technology tends to get beyond chaotic...resulting is so many deaths that none of us would count that high. We can't always depend on tech forever, we need to survive in harsh conditions sometimes...which to tell you the truth, most young Sangheili never survive, especially how our weather on our homeworld is like" Darst felt the same way.

Cynder also had her part in this for her own kind, "Life has a cruel sense of humour...I don't know about elites, but we dragons learn to adapt quickly to changes, our bodies for example. Weather can take a toll on us, but we survive most effects of it, snow, heat, rain, wind, that kind of stuff. The one thing we can't adapt to is natural disasters...whirlwinds and gale forces, floods and lightning...there's no way to change them. When we're very young, we barely survive any unbalanced weather condition, but we grow up and learn to live with it...but I heard some younglings, even under parents normally never survive bad weather..." Cynder felt saddened by those last few words, the sense of baby dragons dying before they even have a chance at life breaks her heart.

"Hmm...Life is never all too peaceful...even without us, there will still be chaos...but enough of the doom chit chat. I've pretty much answered your question Savarsu. Happy?" Thel smirked cockily.

"I think all of that sums it up, yes" he replied. All of this info was absorbed into everyone's heads, questions lingered on. But for now, it was time for a different subject.

"Say Darst, if you fought from the start to the finish of the Human-Covenant war, did you ever partake in the ground battles of the human world Harvest?" Veartra asked Kino. It took time for him to remember Harvest, but then it all started pooping into his thick skull.

"I do remember Harvest, it was the first planet we really discovered what the humans were capable of, and where we first encountered them. The Brutes were responsible for designating and leading the attack, but it was us and the rest of the Sangheili who really led those troops" he pieced together what he knew about those years.

"Harvest?" Cynder looked at Thel.

"The humans colonised it, expanding their territory from Earth. It was also one of the first human worlds we glassed...that was a big mistake if you ask me" Arby intervened. He remembered many Cruisers and Carriers glassing continents of Harvest, resulting in something they never expected.

"Of course it was, the huge amount of glassing made the planet's atmosphere and climate to change drastically, and it had one of those 'nuclear winter' effects, causing the top layer of the planet to start becoming an wasteland of cold and ice. A quarter of our troops froze solid because of it!" Ventor had known what humans called these organic made weather changes. He doesn't know the science behind climate shifts and nuclear winter, but he knew the effects and consequences because of it.

"Bah, I blame the Hierarchs, they ordered the glassing" Darst pointed the responsibility of Harvest's glassing at the hands of Truth and the rest of the prophets.

"I'm sure the humans will recolonise that world, as well as their other worlds like Reach, Arcadia, Onyx" Thel assured that guilt will not fall upon the elites for what they've done, but Ventor interrupted.

"Didn't you hear? Onyx dispersed into trillions of sentinels. It wasn't a human colony there, it was a large military hideout. More so, it wasn't even a real world, it was a shield world, all of it was solid sentinels. When our fleets got there, a battle between humans and forerunner sentinel forces was already underway. The whole thing ended when some humans detonated nuclear weapons within the world. It caused sentinel forces to disperse. I think the fleet we sent there was wiped out as well. I don't exactly know the full details, you'll have to ask someone else about Onyx" Odesa ran through small parts about battle on Onyx, a shield world fully dominated by sentinel forces of the forerunners. Arbiter seemed quite shocked at that revelation.

"I never heard about that...what was it, some kind of conspiracy battle" he asked the one handed captain, but all he did was shrug his shoulders.

"Hmm...dark times..." Veartra silently spoke.

Cynder was filled with so many questions, too many to count. She's like a news reporter desiring to continuously inquire questions to someone, but she could only narrow them down and ask a few. She felt something poking her neck, turning to its origin and seeing Spyro getting her attention.

"You want this? I'm not that hungry..." he passed over his plate, which still had half of his meaty cuisine on it, still warm and fresh.

Cynder shook her head and slid it back over to him, "No, it's yours. You need it little more than me for tomorrow" she smiled at him, "but thanks anyway".

Spyro was surprised that she passed it back to him, but he wanted her to at least have something tender before they're throw into the fire.

"Cynder, you have to eat. Even before you went outside the city walls yesterday, you haven't bitten into anything. I'm concerned that you're not caring for yourself all that well" he brought his face closer to hers, showing signs of anxiety, feeling a little uneasy about her well being. She looked at him with such a gentle and innocent expression.

"...Ok...if you're that worried, I'll have a little bit" she pulled the plate back to her front with her paws, licking the top piece of meat to taste the warm, sweet and tender taste. All of a sudden, Spyro watched her dug into his food, now feeling the hunger for ripping apart and swallowing the red cooked beef. Arbiter turned swiftly and watched her.

"Whoa...haven't you eaten for a while?" Thel raised a brow, spotting a feral beast inside her.

Cynder gulped down some more food before looking up, "Starvation has been hiding from me all this time, I really need this" she continued to devour all that sat on the plate, but Spyro happily watched her finish up what's left.

"Say, how did the war with this 'Dark Master' begin anyway? I know you two are a bit young to know the full details but exactly who was this individual? How was the war waged? what was his goal?" Ventor wanted to know the dragon's side of things. He didn't know he was in for a bit of their history, but they were both willing to give whatever info was deemed pretty necessary to speak of.

Cynder lifted her head up from the plate, leaving almost nothing left, "Well...the Dark Master's name was...(sighs)" she didn't want to go through with this again, but Spyro gladly filled in.

"His name was Malefor...and the war started with him raising powerful dark army to exterminate all that stood before his wrath. He was the first purple dragon, only born once every ten generations...in those ten generations, his armies killed too many to count" Spyro lowered his down, mourning all those losses, all those innocent people that didn't deserve death at the hands of monsters and creatures.

Ventor was surprisingly interested to hear more of this. A war ravaging on for ten generations is incredibly longer than the Human-Covenant war. And this happened on a single planet.

"How come he was able to raise the army in the first place?" Savarsu asked.

Cyn finally brought up the courage to talk about it, "Purple dragons are supposed to be very powerful, wielding more abilities than what a normal dragon could use...almost any ability".

"The ancestors and guardians before Terrador and everyone else thought Malefor would've become a noble and wise dragon, but instead, he chose evil, defying them and casting the whole world in chaos...with the darkness on his side, he raised his army and set out to destroy all of the dragons and their allies, the moles including" Spyro finished the introduction to how it all began, shocking the elites.

"That's total genocide! How could that beast do such thing?" Veartra was clearly unhappy Malefor had caused all this.

Arbiter turned to the female Sangheili, "Was our war with the humans any different...".

"It was genocide...but that's not all he wanted...he wanted to destroy the world" Cynder sourly whispered, but everyone definitely heard those words.

"Destroy the world? but technology is crap on this planet! How could he make the world go boom?" Yapflop was confused by how anything on this planet can even harm it.

"He didn't use technology, he didn't use weapons of any kind of destruction, he only summoned creatures from deep within the Earth's crust to destroy everything. They're called Golems" Cynder started explaining about the gigantic earth golems.

"We faced one of them numerous times. We barely laid a scratch on it until we made it accidently punch a waterfall and breaking it's left arm off in the process. When we got to Warfang, it was under siege" Spyro filled in the smaller details of their journey. Veartra cut into their talk.

"So that explains the damage we saw around the city. It must've been terrible" she shared concern for the inhabitants of this sandstone metropolis.

"The Golem came back and increased the destruction, but we killed it, quickly and precisely...with some help from the guardians and Hunter" the purple dragon re-imagined the death of the Golem, one foe that both he and the dragoness will never forget

Cynder then started remembering the monster that brought world to its near destruction, "With the Golem defeated...Malefor decided to try and end the world with the Destroyer...oh ancestors, I don't want to remember that thing's face..."

**I was gonna post two chapters but I thought that'd take even a bit of a while, so I posted this chapter first. Next one will come sooner or later, not sure. I won't be surprised if you guys don't review and comment, considering how long you've waited for. If so, thanks for waiting so patiently. I hope the story has some value to reading some chapters again and again.**


	53. Fuel to the fire

Cynder and Spyro continued explaining to Ventor and the other unaware elites about their war with the Dark master. They talked about how he resurrected the Destroyer, a massive ancient Golem, with its height and size relatable to the tallest of Earth's mountains. Ventor wondered if an attack made by a Battlecruiser would even scratch a creature with the size of those proportions.

"That monster would be larger than any Flood Gravemind. I'd never send any troop or vehicle to go against that thing" Odesa could only imagine what it'd look like.

"Cynder had the idea to destroy a damn that could flood the canyon that the Destroyer had to walk through. For the most part, it worked. We attacked and even destroyed it's inner heart" the purple dragon continued to explain their battle against the monster, describing everything he remembered that day.

"That thing had a heart?" Jabjab exclaimed.

"A dark crystal heart. Still, even though we did destroy its source of living, but somehow, it still kept going and it completed the ring of fire...I was almost heart stricken" Cynder shook her head and shrugged her shoulders, "so we had to go through the Belt of fire and stop Malefor himself. It seemed like the only way to halt the end of the world".

"Foolish, but brave" Savarsu commented.

"We got through the fire though, with some help..." Spyro didn't want to tell them about Ignitus' fate, even if Thel and Darst already knew about it. He couldn't bring himself to talk about it again, "and from there, we went through the burned lands and reached Malefor's lair".

Tetrestu was listening in very closely. He didn't draw his eyes towards them, staring down at the table, but he did keep an open ear.

"When we got there, he tried to make us turn against our goal to stop him and instead let that whole nightmare continue, but we refused, defied him. Then he did something I never thought he could do" Spyro fully remembered the moment he temporarily controlled Cynder, turning her into the creature Arbiter had seen at the Shadow of Intent.

"He turned you into that dark being, didn't he?" Thel looked down at his dragoness partner.

"I rather be dead than having to be controlled by him again...I was made to hurt a close friend...more than just a friend from that moment onwards anyway" Cynder drew her eyes towards Spyro. He could always recognise that loving smile behind the normal one she was using as cover.

"Ungg, this is really boring me! All this lovey dovey crap is gonna make me puke my dinner out! I'm gonna check on the worm guys, all they do is stand out in the cold and look tough and mean" Jabjab jumped out of his seat, having enough of the story. He opened the front door and exited the building, leaving Yapflop to take the last bite of Jabjab's food.

"Bye bye!" Yapflop shouted.

Thel shook his head, annoyed by Jabjab's ignorance. Suddenly, a shadow went over his backside, and wondering who was behind him, he made a u-turn of his and to his surprise, it was Hunter, the cheetah he hadn't seen for a while, ever since leaving Warfang to find and rescue Cynder.

"Hunter? Haven't seen you since I left the city" Thel cheerfully spoke, standing up from his chair and shaking hands with the cheetah warrior.

"Good to see your still kicking, that speech you made in front of everyone has inspired almost all of Warfang to join the battle against Magnaruckus' forces, some citizens have even started doing a bit of training" Hunter acknowledged that Arbiter had done his job and now there will be more warriors to fight alongside the resistance.

Thel crossed his arms, "It's the only morale I could give them, I'm surprised they listened to me. To them, I'm just a creature from another world".

Hunter smirked, "After that speech, everyone would consider you and your race as honourable and strong warriors. They have accepted elites as part of their community and daily lives" he looked over to the moles who were minding their own business, every time they'd see an elite, they would treat them like any other person would, politely and kindly.

"That's good to know then, it's always nice to have more people that are kind to you. It was iffy when we first came here" Arbiter reminded Hunter.

"That it was. Afternoon Spyro, Cynder...Cynder?" the caped cheetah looked over to his dragon friends and comrades of battle, but was stunned when he saw the dragoness' armour.

"Hey Hunter" Spyro replied cheerfully.

"Good afternoon Hunter...are you ok?" she raised her left brow.

Hunter shook his head to get out of the stun, "Am I seeing things or are you wearing a cut up version of Thel's armour?".

"Heh, the moles made it for me, tomorrow is when I fully put it to good use" she lifted her right forearm and twisted it around, looking up to Hunter after getting a good show of it.

"I must say, the moles have outdone themselves this time. I bid you hope that it will protect you from whatever the Jiralhanae will throw at us" Hunter's dark green eyes looked around the table, "I'm sorry to interrupt but I must talk with Thel for a moment" he requested.

"No need to apologise. Arbiter?" Darst looked at Vadam, already knowing his objective.

"One minute everyone" Thel walked outside with the cheetah, Cynder having to watch him go. She didn't mind at all, at least Spyro was with her...and someone else that came with Hunter.

"Yo what's up?" Sparx flew around the table.

"Err...hey Sparx" the purple dragon's voice was a bit sceptical having him here.

"Who are you exactly?" Savarsu asked.

Darst facepalmed over his right mandibles, "Here we go..."

Thel and Hunter stopped in the middle of the street, all dark and quiet with no voices except for the ones within the surrounding buildings. Stars was glittering all over the sky and the moons can be seen high above the duo. That same cold breeze kept passing by.

"What is it Hunter?" Thel asked, as if it could be urgent.

His head curved left and right, checking behind his back before replying the Sangheili warrior.

"Those weapons you brought back are working fine, some of mine and Prowlus' warriors have half of them but others preferred to keep bows and arrows, and sticking to swords. All of the moles troops are ready, all in their barracks right now" Hunter explained the situation within their arsenal, "We have enough of our own weapons that we could hand out to the entire city, but if those elites inside are gonna get their own tech in their own hands, it's best you tell them to grab their weapons of choice. We can't be too cautious now the battle is just around the corner".

Thel huffed at this information, nodding his head, "I'll tell them to choose their weapons right now then" Arbiter turned around and started walking into the restaurant, but Hunter reached out for Thel's right shoulder.

"That's not what I was urged to tell you though" Thel came back around and listened, "Prowlus sent one our warriors to scout the outside perimeter today mid morning, one of our finest...he never came back" Hunter's tone sounded concerned now.

"Today mid morning? How far was he out?" Thel needed to know everything, something might not be right.

"By now, he could've gotten to where the Shadow crashed or even further, but he was one our best, that cheetah covered his tracks wherever he went and always knew the way back. There's no way he would've gotten lost" the concerned and close to nervous cheetah paced near Thel, "Only two explanations for this, he was either found and killed by a large group of Grublins...or the Brutes are closing in much faster than we're really expecting..." Hunter shuddered, as if he was feeling the Brute presence coming closer. Thel growled within his neck.

"Damn it, Magnaruckus probably lied...who was it that Prowlus sent?" Thel asked curiously.

Hunter felt something clogged in his throat, feeling a hint of anxiety welling in him. He brought up the courage to say it, "His name is Meadow. Prowlus sent him because Meadow has experience wandering these lands...he insistently volunteered to do this" Hunter aggrievedly sighed. There's a number of ways about what happened to his fellow feline comrade, but Brutes were the most obviously blamed reason.

"Meadow...the same one Spyro and Cynder found and rescued during the war days?" Thel remembered seeing Meadow multiple times, most prominently when he first met the cheetah warriors.

"The very same..." Hunter confirmed.

Arbiter drew his left hand over his face, sighing and shaking his head. Knowing that they had to be told, Vadam gave Hunter a specific order.

"Break the news everyone inside the restaurant, then go tell the dragon guardians. The Lekgolo and some moles are still on watch in case they see something, so if Magnaruckus has lied about their arrival, we'll be immediately notified" Arbiter wanted to keep continual survey of the city surroundings. If Meadow has been captured or killed by the Brutes during the afternoon, they're much closer than predicted and the defences have to be ready in case something goes wrong.

"We aren't going to mobilize?" Hunter thought Thel was going to have everyone geared up and ready.

"Not until we see the threat in full preparation. If we set up everything, and if we're wrong, everyone will be tired by morning, and that's no good when it comes to awareness of a battlefield...which this city is soon about to be" Thel looked around. Buildings will fall, depending on where the savage monsters fire their weapons of annihilation. Hunter nodded his head.

"I see. Guess it's time to tell the others then" the red caped cheetah walked back to the front door, looking back at Vadam, "Aren't you coming back in?".

"Only for a moment. I need to say my temporary farewell to Cynder and the others. I need to check on those Hunters anyway...I meant the Lekgolo" Arby pinpointed out.

"I knew what you meant, no worries there" Hunter opened the door for themselves to go back in.

"You two are brave creatures, surviving all of that...not one of us has those kinds of experiences" Savarsu was glad to fully listen to the dragon's story.

"Well...maybe there's one exception to that" Cynder smirked, drawing her attention to the door. Everyone else at the table did the same, seeing Thel and Hunter walk back in. Hunter gulped down any saliva stuck in his throat.

Darst was the first to ask, "So what were you two talking about out there?"

Arbiter sighed, turning to Hunter.

"...I told Thel about the cheetah's current situation with using your weapons and technology, and so far, only half the weapons have been taken. Other cheetahs have decided to keep their swords, bows and arrows at their side" Hunter repeated what he told to Thel.

"If you're going to choose your weapons Sangheili, I suggest you head to the armoury and take whatever you want" Thel ordered them, giving them the decision to choose the weapons of their choice.

"Neat, I want a Fuel rod" Tesk wanted to go with power, but Ventor declined his request.

"You'll be driving that Locust young Raskar, you don't need a Fuel rod gun. A Plasma rifle or Carbine would suit you better if you're ever going to be jumping out of the machine" Tesk's captain suggested to the young blood warrior. A moan of annoyance came out of Tesk's mouth.

"But there is something I have to tell you all, something that Spyro and Cynder need to hear. Thel though says he needs to leave" Hunter was about to inform them about Meadow, in which Arbiter took this as the chance to say a little goodbye.

"Everyone, I'm sorry about this, but I must check on the Lekgolo. Thank you for everything, it's been nice to see some familiar faces at the same table" Arby was about to depart, surprising Cynder, Yapflop and Darst.

"You're leaving? Can't you stay just a little longer?" Cynder wanted her unofficial Sangheili brother to stay at the table with her, and knowing if he goes, it might be the last time she really talks to him face to face.

"I can't, and Hunter will explain why. Darst, Spyro, Cynder, and everyone else, I hope to see all of you ready for battle the next time we reunite. Get some sleep everyone, you'll need it" it was to be noticed that Arbiter was concerned for all their safety. He knows that will people will die, but knowing who will depends on how fate will reveal it.

"Hmm...ok Thel, see you in the morning. Let us hope luck is still with us by then" Darst spoke out to the departing Arbiter, thinking and hoping the very same thing.

Cynder waved her right forepaw to Thel, but he had missed her act when his back was turned to her. She'd suddenly felt disappointed. Usually Thel would look back at her at certain times. She thought to herself then "Maybe he just has too much time to worry about her when he has a whole city looking up to him for guidance against the Jiralhanae. I don't blame him"

She looked up to Hunter, "So what's going on? Is there a problem?".

Hunter started speaking in front of the group, still grieving over their loss, "Prowlus sent Meadow far outside of the walls today mid-morning, just after Thel's speech. He volunteered to scout far out into the wilderness and come back when he found where the Brutes were setting up their assault, then come back to report...he never came back".

The instant devastation hit Spyro and Cynder hard. Their gapped mouths told Hunter that they could not believe this. How could Prowlus even let Meadow go on a mission like that, let alone it was his idea. Sparx eyes were wider than ever.

"You mean...the guy we helped get back to your half destroyed village? that guy who had a broken leg?" Sparx finger quoted broken leg.

"Yes. We expected to see him come back tonight...but it's been too long" Hunter lowered his head down at the floor, leaning forward on the table, feeling nothing but angst inside his heart.

"Meadow...no, not Meadow" Cynder shut her eyes, grinding her teeth with the urge to kill whoever has taken him, or worse. Spyro noticed her anger, and he had to make sure she kept her temper cool, otherwise risking her other side come out uninvited.

He wrapped his left wing around, grabbing the black dragoness's attention, "Let's not have another Shadow of Intent. But still, what was the point of sending Meadow out there in the first place!" Spyro's roaring voice got the moles to all turn around, scared off by the purple dragon, and some getting out of their seats and backing away.

"I told you Spyro, Meadow volunteered to do it!" Hunter responded with the exact same tone, but Darst stood up himself, being taller and more fearsome looking than the other two.

"Then why didn't you step in and go against the cheetah's idea?" Kino's low but deep Sangheili voice was enough to make almost anyone give him answers. Hunter sighed and wiped his eyes.

"I did, but the other warriors and Prowlus thought it would benefit us knowing their entire force, counting out how many troops, vehicles and aircraft, then pinpointing their location in addition to how long they could get to the city with an estimated time. If he'd came back, we might've set traps up for Magnaruckus and the rest of them" Hunter had fully explained the reasons of Meadow's mission, but Ventor jumped up and slammed his fist onto the table.

"You're a fool then! You can never spring traps effectively against Brutes, especially if there's going to be huge numbers of them! Not to mention, they also have a Scarab" Ventor knew Brutes were not easy to bring down with traps, it's brutality that's going to be the decider for both the invaders and the defenders.

"We could've at least tried though!" Hunter yelled at Ventor, quite aggressively.

"Guys, calm down" Tesk didn't like the argument that started unfolding, but they ignored him completely. Veartra helped Tesk with this situation, standing up and looking at her officer.

"Ventor! Sit down!" she hissed at her captain, immediately shutting him up and sitting back down, with mumbling growls, "Hunter, it may not be your fault, but the Brutes have now either killed your associate or captured him and tried to gather information" here, she couldn't comprehend the consequences of Meadow's aftermath.

"If they captured him, he'd never give out information. Even to the most menacing of foes. And if they did kill him...I just hope his death was quick and painless" Hunter sighed, sitting in a chair behind him.

Not one word was spoken after Hunter's, only cricket chirps took over until Sparx and Yapflop interrupted.

"Umm...we cool now guys?" Sparx had both of his hands raised, hoping the shouting and yelling stopped.

"I'm cool" Yapflop smiled gleefully like a 5 year old.

"Hmph, takes a female to quiet down arguments..." Savarsu had death stares from not only Veartra, but Cynder also looked a bit offended by that, "What?".

Darst pushed in his chair and walked by the elites side of the table, "Either way, Meadow is lost to us. But why bicker over this when the real enemy is out there and coming for our blood" his tone of voice sounded militaristic.

Spyro nodded, thinking similarly, "Exactly. Remember what Thel said? We have to put aside our differences. It's sad about what's happened to Meadow..." Spyro had his down, but Cynder took over.

"But we must add that as fuel to the fire, that being our resistance, and exact payback for what the Jiralhanae has done to us over the past week. We've already lost a few too many friends, so I say we show those monsters everything we got" she jumped on top of the table, "And give them one last battle to the death if we have to".

"I am with Darst and the Dragons. They speak with honour and pride. Thel wouldn't like to see this happening during the fight tomorrow" Tetrestu willingly stood up, looking directly at the crimson zealot, determined to destroy Brute forces. Kino nodded at the once formerly silent elite.

Darst placed his right hand onto Hunter's left shoulder, grabbing his attention, "I'm sorry for your loss. But tomorrow, there will be casualties, so we must take it and fight back with all our might to ensure we will see the next day. Go and tell the guardians about this, but don't let this recent event cause you to lose your fighting spirit. We need everyone at their best tomorrow" the Sangheili's words sounded sincere, giving the cheetah some hope back.

Hunter got up and cleared his throat, "I don't plan on losing that spirit Darst Kino. Expect to see me taking down your...our...enemies together" and he promised just that. Darst responded with a respectable smile.

Sparx flew around the cheetah and the elite, "Hey, don't both of you have jobs to do now?".

Darst and Hunter instantly turned to each other.

"I better be off then. Spyro, Cynder, take care. I hope everyone else has a good night" the noble cheetah bid his farewells to everyone, opening the door and leaving the building, going into the cold dark night.

"See you tomorrow Hunter..." Spyro murmured to himself.

"Alright elites, get to the armoury, choose your weapons carefully and find a room at the Grand Atrium to sleep in tonight. It's going to be a rough day tomorrow" Darst circled around, looking at the others, who were getting up from the table to leave the restaurant themselves, but not before Tesk talks to Veartra.

"Hey, thanks for the bit of help with Ventor and the cheetah" the young but mature enough Raskar said to the female Sangheili.

"They needed to calm down a bit, it's hard enough trying to fight Brutes" she smirked at him. Suddenly, Tesk seemed immediately shy towards her. He was the exact same height at Veartra. Some differences between them were Veartra's thinner body structure and more curved armour, plus, Tesk's armour was a lighter blue. She had a darker blue with a tint of purple.

"Umm...are you alright in the head Tesk?" she asked him because he was just staring at her. His hearts started pounding erratically for some reason. He shook his head, ridding of the daze.

"Guh, sorry. I think we better get going" Tesk passed by her, walking quickly to get to the door. Veartra raised both of her brows, "What's wrong with him?".

Spyro, Cynder and Yapflop all went to leave as well, but Sparx flew right in front of them, quickly grabbing their attention just for one moment.

"I better catch up with the cat then. Cynder, I'm going to give this one warning: Don't do something 'intimate' with Spyro tonight or I will know" he pointed at her, not needing to go into full details.

"Excuse me? What do you mean by that Sparx?" Cynder narrowed her eyes down. She didn't seem all to happy with that warning, but doesn't know what he meant specifically.

"Just don't...Ngrr! just don't do anything stupid!".

Spyro decided to step into this, "Sparx, it's not your business about what me and Cynder do in our own time. And if you're thinking what I think you're thinking, WE CAN'T DO THAT YET!" Sparx's purple brother tried to make that very clear to the dragonfly.

"Whatever, just a warning" Sparx flew out of building's slightly opened front window.

"(Sigh) Still the pain he is" Cynder shook her head.

"What was he talking about?" Yapflop curiously asked, unaware of what it was about. Both young Dragons said to him with one word:

"NOTHING!".

Yapflop was speechless.

Cynder felt a bit bad for shouting at Yapflop. He didn't do anything, and he's been through as much as she has. The dragoness drew her right wing over her.

"Sorry Yapflop. I think you should go find Jabjab on top of the city walls, I'm sure he could use your company" she smiled cheerfully at him.

"Ok, bye bye!" Yapflop waddled like a child outside, and ran freely to the walls.

"Spyro, I have to go find Thel. Meet me at my room inside the Atrium and wait for me there" Cynder turned to her purple pride and joy. He wondered why she had to see him at this kind of night, there's nothing too important on right now.

"How come?".

"I just need to see him. Don't worry, I'll be back very soon. You just go to my room, it should be nice and warm in there, ok?" both of them walked outside, feeling the instant chills of the night.

"Brrr! Alright, be safe then" he gave her a quick nuzzle on her left cheek then took off into the sky, heading for the massive centre building of the city.

Cynder, now alone, had to find Thel. He never told where he was going, nor why he left without explaining his real reasons. She took off from the ground and her wings were suddenly strained by the weight of her armour, barely controlling how high she actually was. The coldness wasn't helping either.

"(Shivers) Darn these freezing temperatures!" her sharp pointed and edged teeth chattered quickly in response to the unforgiving cold.

"If I was a Sangheili who had a dragoness friend and is an Arbiter, where would I be..." she looked along the ground pathways, around buildings of all sorts.

She flew above the infirmary, going inside to find out. But he wasn't there...Clin was though. She checked to see if Arbiter could be at the resistance vehicle lot, but when she got there, no Thel Vadam in sight. Then she tried checking around the Blacksmith building. Again, Thel's not there. She started to get concerned, he left no trail behind, his whereabouts are unknown. He didn't even tell Hunter anything before leaving.

"(Teeth continue to chatter) where would Thel be at this time of night!...wait a minute..." she started to remember when Thel first came to the city, many days ago. When the sun was setting, she and Arby sat on the small field together..."He's there! Of course!" she curved her flight path around, creating a massive u-turn.

No one could see the dragoness up in the sky, she was blended in with the night sky. A truly remarkable dragoness, looking down onto the great city below her. Suddenly, seeing the field, she saw a tiny glint of shine reacting to the moonlight. She swooped in with clarity and grace, breaking through the cold and it's night. Spreading open her wings like a parachute, she glided down to the ground, landing perfectly onto the cobblestones.

He was calmly sitting there, by the tree. Cynder noticed something drastically different about the tree though, it lots of leaves on it before. Now, just one tiny piece of green sat there, just to be suddenly blown off by the breeze and falling down in front of Cynder. She frowned at the sight.

"Thel?" she quietly called to him.

No response. Was he asleep? she couldn't really tell, as she was behind him. She carefully treaded upon the hill, closer and closer to Vadam until she sat next to him.

"Everyone is counting on my Cynder...I don't know if I can uphold that promise with already a few gone..." his voice sounded regretful, disturbing, but mildly truthful. She looked up to him, not surprised by the sudden voice and words.

"Meadow and Shin may be gone...Rtas and Kintra too...and your kind may have had that traitorous Shenko getting you into this mess. But Thel?" he looked down to her, "...I'm more than confident that we'll defeat Magnaruckus and all those savages...the bigger they are, the harder they fall"...

**Tension is building up still! thank you to everyone who once again waited, thanks to my reviewers for still getting me up to that 100 reviews and thanks to my Deviantart friends who kept me going at this story. I'm not gonna give up yet.**

**Review and comment, as always, have a nice day.**


	54. The calm before

Darst and the other elites had arrived at the armory near the Grand Atrium out front. The former Covenant Zealot opened the door, so quickly that it slammed against the wall and a sharp and recently forged sword fell onto the ground. Kino noticed it, so he turned around and pointed at one of the others for a quick job.

"Tesk, if you pick that up I'll hand your Needler and another weapon" Darst was willing enough to return the young warrior's weapon if this was done. Tesk smiled and nodded, running over to the sword and hanging back on its original spot.

Whilst he did that, Kino walked over to the large pile of high tech weapons. Rifles, launchers, pistols, a few sniper like guns of all sorts. He spotted Raskar's Needler on a lone table, the same goes for everyone else's Plasma rifles. Darst looked back to the pile and smiled as he saw the perfect secondary weapon for Tesk.

"Hey boy, catch" the Zealot called for his attention, then throwing the Needler and a Needle rifle at Tesk.

He easily caught the Needler in his right hand but when he saw the incoming rifle, he panicked and just caught the gun within the grasp of his arms. He almost stabbed himself in his left leg, as the needles protruding out of the top just missed him by inches.

"Woah, too close…what am I supposed to do with this? I don't have any experience with a Needle rifle sire. To that extent, I'll be driving the Locust anyway" Tesk wasn't refusing the weapon but he knows he wouldn't do any good with it.

"Those Brutes know that the Locust will do tremendous damage if they don't destroy it quickly, they can and will destroy it as soon as they see it. And when they do…" Darst took hold of his Energy sword, activating the blade to ensure himself it still worked, as well taking a blue colored Concussion rifle from the pile, one that he himself done, "You better hope that the whole thing doesn't blow up with you inside it" he finished the sentence.

Tesk felt chills run down his spine. He wasn't ready to die in a fiery explosion.

"You'll be fine Tesk; stay focused about the situation and try to work it out" Veartra laid her left hand on his right shoulder. He curved his around and saw her face, bringing a sense of comfort and a small stretch confidence.

His swiftly swung back to the front, actually shying away from her, "Thanks Veartra…" he said with a low tone of voice. She raised a brow, wondering why Tesk turned away from her so fast. She still smiled at him though.

"Still, what about the Needle rifle?" Raskar asked is Zealot superior about the other needle weapon. Darst placed 5 power cells for the Concussion rifle around his waist.

"You seem to be fond of needle weapons. Besides, 3 of them into a Brute and he'll die in a pink mist. I'm sure you'll do something creative with that thing" Kino chuckled lightly.

He noticed a Spiker within the pile of technological murder equipments, but it wasn't just any Spiker, it was the same one that Darst himself used against Arbiter, but shot Cynder when she flew in front of Thel, saving his life and almost getting killed for it. Darst knew that day, as he was punched in the face by the Arbiter, these Dragons were more than just winged reptile like creatures. They had their own culture, their own way of life, their very own history.

To shoot who is now one of Thel's closest and currently alive friends is punishable by all sorts of torment. Darst is going to make sure he'll never live with that guilty conscience.

"Let's see if those bastards like their own weapons turned against" he placed the Spiker on left thigh, deactivating his energy sword to rest it on the opposite side. He wanted to kill as many Brutes as possible with each of his chosen weapons. Before turning back to his comrades, he swiped 4 Spiker clips, then attached them to his waist also.

"Grab what you like my Sangheili brethren, and take plenty of ammo and grenades with you" Darst stepped outside, letting the others choose whatever they want except for Tesk, who's already equipped his arsenal.

Sarvasu went in first, followed by Tetrestu and Veartra. Before Ventor entered, he looked at Darst to ask him a quick question, at that moment, Tesk squeezed in between them to get out.

"How come you're not carrying grenades yourself?" the captain asked his Zealot commander.

"A Concussion rifle makes up for it, an upgraded one…hasn't the boy got a sword?"Darst has noticed that Tesk has never carried an Energy sword with him. Ventor let a long deep breath before speaking.

"He was trained using plasma rifles and plasma pistols, but when it came to his sword training…he failed it" he shook his, looking up to Kino's mandible drooped face.

Darst sighed, "You know that every boy who hasn't passed his sword training yet cannot join the military, don't you?" he crossed his arms with narrowed down eyes.

The somewhat guilty Ventor lowered his head in shame, "I know that Darst…but it was during the time when everyone was needed for the invasion against Earth as well as the Great Schism. He has the potential, but it won't show".

"It's ok. He'll be driving a Locust, as long as he can drive that, it's fine by me. After this whole battle blows over, I'll show him how to properly wield a blade" Darst assured the one handed captain.

"That's if we do make it through this battle…as well as if we all survive" Ventor continued into the armory, passing Veartra who was leaving with a Beam rifle in her hands, her Energy sword on her right thigh and carrying two plasma grenades.

"I'm surprised you know how to use a blade miss" Darst smirked at her.

"Females can choose whether they want sword training or not, most don't though since they expect a male to fight they're battles. I knew it was gonna come in handy some day I'm a little bit rusty though" Mevlos looked down at the handle that will summon the energy to spill the blood of her enemies tomorrow, if she can make it happen.

"That's fine, we need all the help we can get…Ventor, while you're in there, grab that blue upgraded Fuel rod and that green Needler, I'll take it to the Grunts" Kino was going to deliver the Jabjab's and Yapflop's gear to them in person. They needed a quick check up anyway.

Sarvasu was going all out frontline trooper style with a non-upgraded Carbine, a Plasma Repeater, his sword, a plasma grenade and even a Brute spike grenade. It caught Tetrestu's eyes by surprise.

"A Brute grenade Sarv?" Tet stared at him, squad member to squad member.

Sarvasu turned around to respond with a confident attitude, "I figured it would come in handy sometime tomorrow, gotta use everything we can muster…you're slowly to let out you're voice now" Sarv smirked.

A respectful huff left Tetrestu's gapped mouth as he lifted up a Plasma Launcher and took an upgraded red colored plasma pistol. His blade was already at his left thigh even during dinner.

Ventor was going to make his weapon visit quick, taking a normal plasma rifle and his blade. The loss of his left hand made it hard for him to carry rifles and heavy launcher like weapons, and throwing grenades is going to be bit tougher without a good left throwing arm, but as he said before, it wasn't going to interfere with combat.

Done with weapon shopping, Odesa threw the Grunt's weapons one by one. Darst easily caught the deadly but very Grunt touched weapons he personally tuned up.

"By the way Kino, what are the upgraded ones exactly improve upon other than a slight appearance change?" Veartra asked her superior officer in charge.

"They can fire a continuous amount of ammo without reloading; instead they have a cool down timer for if they overheat. Their batteries last for 24 hours and the ones that cause explosions make a bigger boom. That's my definition of upgrade" Darst smiled proudly to himself.

"Have you tested them out?" Tesk asked. Kino's smile suddenly went away.

"Well…not exactly…but think of tomorrow's battle as a field test" the Zealot shrugged his shoulders.

"Yeah, and the targets shoot back at us with real guns and grenades and tanks and other dangerous goodies…" Veartra shook her head as this 'field test' could just be as dangerous as the Brutes if these upgraded weapons are too backfire. The consequences for the user would go from a near mild singed hand to a dismembered corpse, depending on the weapon.

"Oh…perfect" Tesk frowned upon her words.

"(Sigh) By the gods…well let's just hope they don't have any repercussions then. I suggest we all get a good night's sleep, head inside the Atrium, ask the moles for a room and enjoy the rest while it lasts. But first" Ventor walked up in front of Darst, "Thel spoke about Plasma sentry cannons…where would they be?" Odesa wanted the auto gun's location.

"He left them in cases, onboard the Phantom I think…what do you want with them?" Kino a one brow raised, wondering what the red armored Sangheili plan was.

"I thought we can give the Brutes a nice surprise for if they break through the front gates. They're a solid addition to the defense and we must use them" he turned his back to Darst and walked away from the group to where the vehicles were. He thought he'd quickly do it before he goes to bed.

"Fine, but don't be too long then!" Kino had quickly shouted out to his one handed comrade.

"What about Thel then? And those two Dragons? Not to also mention the Grunts and Hunters?" Sarvasu asked about the others of their group.

"Thel will be fine, he seems to like the night. The Hunters can stay awake all night to keep watch and the Grunts might as well fall asleep next to them. Spyro went to go to bed but I don't know about Cynder, probably spending time with Thel before she heads off" the crimson elite curved his head around, "You can all leave now. I'll see every one of you in the morning. I must give little Jabjab and Yapflop their guns" he needed go to the front gates and deliver the weapons. All the Sangheili nodded then walked up the stairs to enter the front doors of the Atrium.

They were finally ready to battle the Brutes in defense of Warfang. The moles were ready, the cheetahs were ready and the former Covenant group was ready. Anything could happen tomorrow though. Even with all these upgrades and defenses, were they strong enough to defeat an entire Jiralhanae battalion of killers and murder machines?

For now, it doesn't matter as the night was still covering the skies and the breeze was still coming and going. Thel was spending what may be his last night with the black dragoness, his closest companion, a relationship he had with her but not in that way. He was sitting still against the tree whilst she lay next to him, resting her left wing over the exposed parts of his armor, giving him a little bit of warmth.

They were both looking up at the dark sky; the moons were the light of the night, the stars acting like small bright dots to cover the rest of the gapped space. Cynder sighed in relief and silent joy. She always loved the peace, but she also asked herself questions about what lies beyond what she saw everyday. So much to explore and discover and yet she can't see it due to the limitations of her species and everyone else around her. Except for Thel though, for he has seen some of the wonders beyond her world.

Remembering what he told her though, it seemed like life was easier here than almost anywhere else. Suddenly, she felt Vadam sliding his right hand along her back, caressing along her body length and making her tail slither across the grass. Her words then came to interfere the silence.

"Thel, do you still remember when we first met?" she looked up to him with a soft smile.

His mandibles made that same Sangheili smile, "It was just a few days ago, of course I remember" he lowered his head to meet her emerald gaze. It seemed like his orange and black slit eyes could never look as good as the ones Cynder had but they suited him anyway.

"He he…it feels a lot longer than just a few days though…" Cyn looked down on the grass between her paw noticing a little ladybug climbing to the apex of a piece of the ground leaves. It flew away in front of her then in front of Thel, just noticing the little orange insect.

"What do you want?" he narrowed his eyes down the ladybug, scared off by his voice, "Ok then…".

Cynder giggled, keeping her mouth stayed shut but the shaking from her body told Thel she was laughing, so there was no way to really contain it. She stopped when he nudged her right forearm in response.

"Ow, was that really necessary?" she lightly snapped at him. She could hear the low base noises from inside his chest, which his laughter was taking place. She snuck her scythe tail tip to Thel's bottom, where only the straps of his armor resided.

He felt a slight jolt of shocking pain all of a sudden, "AGH!" jumping up, startled and surprised. He turned around and saw the steel silver scythe weapon, "Cynder, that's tender! I didn't use a blade on you did I?" he had to rub where she got him, as it started to itch.

"Tender? I expected Jabjab to say something like that" her gleaming teeth were exposed laughing from her antic against Thel.

"I think he already has…or was it Yapflop…never mind, that really isn't important…" he sat back against the tree, giving Cyn little warning to remove her tail tip.

"(Sigh) Still that was pretty funny" the dragoness rolled onto her backside, having enough of her belly area getting a bit wet from the grass.

"Speak for yourself" Thel smirked at her.

"But Thel…" her joyful laughter and innocent voice went away, "From when I first met you at the Shadow of Intent's crash site, I saw you as an unknown stranger, some creature I have never seen before…but you were a broken soul when Rtas died. You had emotions just like every other intelligent being, not a mindless animal with a lot of high tech stuff…" she was describing what she saw when Cyn had seen Thel for the very first time. Thel listened into every word, sinking into his head. Her words sounded…the kindest they've ever been.

"And now, you're like a brother to me. Looking out for me, protecting me from danger and putting your life at risk…and you're not even Spyro…you're a Sangheili, a being from another world that I've never seen in life. I've…I've enjoyed the past the few days Thel…and tomorrow might be the last time we see each other again…whether it may be you going home…or we all die in a vicious battle…" a tear came pouring down from her left eye. Thel lifted a up his right hand and caught it. He didn't know why she was about to cry when nothing has happened.

"Cynder, what's wrong?"

"…I don't want you to leave!" those words had Thel at shock, his bottom mandibles dropped like rocks. Did he really just hear that sentence?

"But…why?" he asked her curiously. She rolled back onto her feet and rested her head against his chest, sobbing at the thoughts of him leaving the world.

"I don't want you to go because…I…I've grown attached to you. Not in the way like I have been with Spyro but…I just don't want you leave…You're my best friend…after all the time we've spent together, you can't just leave…" she nestled against the hard armor but she didn't care about the metal. She wanted Arbiter to stay on this planet, with her, with all the inhabitants of Warfang.

He slowly pushed her away, not forcingly though, "I wish I could…I've met so many wonderful people here, so many different creatures…but as much as it pains me, I have to go back to Sangehilios. I have to see the state it's currently in, what the other elites plan in the near future, how our relationship with the Humans will become stronger. My home needs me…and I cannot put friends and comrades in front of that. Not even you…" Thel regretted saying that to her, he hated himself for even speaking the words, but nevertheless, it was the truth.

Cynder shook her head, getting rid of any other tears her eyes might've dropped, "I (sniff) I understand…ung, by the ancestors, I feel like such a hatchling when I cry now, it's immature! I'm over 13 years old and I still do it" she growled at herself.

"So? I'm much older and I still do. Rarely, but that doesn't change anything" Thel tried to make her feel better, but it didn't seem to work as she paced in front of him.

"Still, I shouldn't have to cry, I mean, I feel good now, Malefor's gone, I have Spyro to love and care for, nothing really can't go wrong…maybe except for the battle but look at me. I'm like a damn hatchling waiting for food!" Cynder stomped her forepaws in the grass in contempt rage.

"Because your own emotions are what makes that happen. You think too much of others and not yourself" Arbiter said to her, causing the Dragoness to stop and look at him directly.

"What do you mean? You think its wrong I shouldn't care about others?" she grumbled with her eyes narrowed in.

"No, it's perfectly natural to think about others that you care for so dearly, but you think about the negatives of what could happen but might not come true. You think about me leaving, you think that something will happen to Spyro, you tell yourself a future that won't come and then you're emotions blind you. Advice from the Sangheili Cynder; Think positive and look out for yourself" Vadam stood up before her. His words settled her down, sitting on her haunches.

"…I guess that's you're way of saying shut up?" Cynder felt like she just secretly got taught to zip the lip. Thel shook his head and sighed deeply.

"In a way you could say…but I'm just telling you, it's a request…but try and take in turns of caring about yourself as well as others. Try not to think about the negatives as well. Do all this and you'll feel better in the end" he knelt down to her height, caressing the back of her head in between her spikes. In return, a smile finally decided to show itself, and Cynder licked Thel's left cheek. She could see a tiny blush from his face.

"I'll take that advice and keep it" she whispered. Thel could only respond with, "Excellent".

She stood back up, as did Thel. The Dragoness cracked her neck side to side, stretching all her bones out.

"I better head back to the Atrium, Spyro's probably wondering where I am. Can't keep him waiting" she smirked with such a sly tone. She walked past Thel, but not before she said her farewell.

"Thel…thanks for this conversation…and thanks for all the time you spent with me. It's been fun these past few days, the most I've ever had" her voice sweetened Arby's two hearts.

"It's been such a pleasure…it has been fun…but let's fight once more tomorrow, together as one" that was Thel's last request from her, and she stood with pride on her shoulders.

"Expect me to be fighting alongside you…goodnight Thel"…

"Goodnight to you too Cyn…" she turned her head, taking off into flight and flew straight towards the Grand Atrium, where Spyro was in her room awaiting her return.

Arbiter had but one more thing to do. He himself but prepare for the battle now. With such determination, he ran fast, very fast, away from the hill with the tree on it. Along the streets of Warfang, beating the cold breeze, nothing else to get in his way. He sprinted by the Blacksmith, passing by the Library. Not loosing any speed, he noticed that he just past by the Infirmary. Clin was putting out the trash, seeing Thel running by. He didn't want to bother whatever Arby was doing, so he let him be.

"Ah that elite. This city really does depend on him" the mole grinned to himself then walked back into the tent.

Soon after, he rocketed passed the restraint where everyone had dinner at. Other moles and some cheetahs that were walking along the streets all saw an elite running through the streets like a madman. Finally, Arbiter had reached his destination. At the front of the Atrium, down on its right side, the armory where it held all the gear this Sangheili needed. He barged in, staring at all the weapons; mole originated, cheetah originated then suddenly, Covenant originated.

Breathing heavily from the long run, he looked at the table with an Energy sword handle sat. It had all the different markings in it, spelling 'Arbiter' in Sangheili language. He picked it up and relinquished its blade, but something was very different about it. Darst had done something to it. Instead of the pure white and blue energy it always had it was pitch black, with shadows coming off of it like Cynder's dark side did. It stunned Thel in one place, his eyes widened at the site.

"Kino…what is this? How did you do it?" there was no way for him to describe this dark and evil and yet, somewhat fear weapon.

The Arbiter withdrew the shadow energy, shaking his head as if he thought he imagined it. Now it wasn't the time for stalling, he rested the handle against his right thigh. He took a Plasma rifle and rested his left thigh, in which he also took a Carbine, putting it onto his back. Taking two plasma grenades and two incendiary grenades and tucked them around his waist.

He thought he was almost ready, but he felt as if he was missing an important component to his arsenal. He noticed the Brute shot within the pile of weapons. The very same Shot he took for himself when he murdered the very first Brute on this planet and found the gun inside the Banshee.

Smiling deviously, he grasped the Brute shot with two hands. He took two belts of grenades that were ammunition for this gun and wrapped it around with the other grenades. With all that needed, he walked out of the armory, feeling the weight he was now carrying. He was ready for the fury that Magnaruckus will place upon this city.

"All right Mags…come and face your demons…"

Ventor had arrived at the vehicle lot. The Spectre, the Phantom, the Banshee, the Ghost and the Locust, all of them set and ready for battle. The Phantom was in the middle of the vehicles, so Odesa had to slip under the Locust and run by the Banshee to get to it. The dropship had identified a Sangheili nearby, so it automatically engaged its gravity lift, giving Ventor access to it's cargo area.

Inside, it's as empty as the Shadow was; only there was no damage and no bodies in it. In the cockpit, two large purple cases sat on the seat. They were no doubt the auto cannons Darst was talking about earlier.

"Come here my pretties" to challenge this, his right hand griped onto one case. To carry the other case though, he slid his blunt left arm under the handle. The heavy case slipped down to his elbow and although this put quite a bit pressure on it, he was going to put these turrets somewhere the Brutes would never expect.

He exited the lift and ran with the guns.

On top of the wall at the front gates, things seemed pretty boring. All the Hunters did was just stand there and watch. Jabjab has sat against the edge wall for over an hour now, trying to go to sleep…but Yapflop wasn't making it any easy.

"Want to play 20 questions? Humans seem to love that game for some reason" now he was just annoying him.

"No…"

"How about I spy?"

"No…"

"What about hungry, hungry Jackals?" suddenly, Jabjab decided to counter all these suggestions.

"I know a game we could play, it's called 'Shut the hell up and let's wait for the Brutes to invade', sound good?" he snickered.

"I love that game! What are the rules?" Yapflop shouted.

"Oh for…(sigh) they're pretty simple…we wait for Brutes to invade, they come, they kill you and we all live happily ever after" Jabjab grumbled, trying desperately to get the orange armored Unggoy off his back.

"That sounds more like a story than a game…tell me more!" Yapflop happily shouted.

"…You know what, instead of them killing you, they kill me instead. That sounds more reasonable!" he couldn't take anymore. Jabjab was going to have a brain hemorrhage at this point until the Hunters turned around.

"What? What is it?" Jabjab asked.

Hunter 1 pointed its giant shield at Darst, who coming towards them with weapons for little Jabjab and Yapflop.

"Oh thank the gods! Darst! Please kill Yapflop! I'm done with him!" Jabjab cried for the Zealot to end the grunt's life but that simply won't happen.

"Trust me Jabjab, as much as he is annoyance and in some cases, a liability, you'll need him more than ever in the morning. We're all in this together" Kino politely handed Yapflop his Fuel rod and Jabjab his Needler. Finally, they're reunited with their weapons after the cheetahs took them when they first met the Grunts.

"OH FUEL ROD! I'VE MISSED YOU! And you're blue, he he he" Yapflop laughed evilly.

"Uhh…yeah…Thanks Darst, we'll kill every Brute we see" Jabjab assured that they won't let him down. That was good enough for the Zealot.

"(Growls angrily)" Hunter 2 looked out in the dark. It's like he felt a presence coming. Its big brother too looked out to the open plains. It was too pitch black to see anything further than 10 miles. Still, nothing came out of the shadows, but when Darst stared beyond the walls…it wasn't all too peaceful.

"What is it? Something out there?" Yapflop curiously asked.

"I don't know…but the Lekgolo know something's not right" that's all Darst could answer.

Up in one of the tallest rooms in near the flat top of the Grand Atrium, inside Cynder's room, Spyro laid quietly on her bed. He has been waiting very patiently for his dragoness to return from talking with Thel. She told him to wait in her room, so why is she taking so long? Just thinking about her made Spyro feel a little bit sleepy.

"Mmm…C'mon Cynder…where are you? (yawns)" just as his eyelids started closing, he opened them up one last time before falling into slumber…that's when he saw her right on top of him.

"AH! CYNDER! I wasn't…thinking anything about…I was waiting for you too-" her front right paw stopped him talking, clasping onto his jaws. Her head seductively sunk next to Spyro's, allowing to her to whisper every single little word to her purple pride and joy.

"This could be our last night together…we've been through a lot together…" she pulled back to match his gaze. He couldn't stop staring at all of her, even if she was in armor. Her face was still the main attention and the most exposed part of Cynder's Arbiter like armor.

"Yeah…we have…the war, the battles we fought, people we've lost…Ignitus…and when we faced Malefor…" Spyro fidgeted into a comfortable position, both of his fore arms holding onto the black dragoness, slowly pulling her down onto his chest.

"(Sigh) I've always wanted to be in this kind of position with you…3 years ago I've been waiting…" she licked around his face so gently and affectionately. He returned the small favor with all the nuzzling he can provide and even kissed her lip for lip.

"I don't want to lose you…not to those savages" he quietly spoke, resting his head beside hers, feeling each others warm breaths. Even through the armor, they can also feel each others beating hearts.

"I can't promise you that Spyro…but…whatever happens…I'll always love you" Cynder opened her maw, as did Spyro. They wanted this very passionate kiss to last for all eternity. They wanted have their future come to life now. When they needed a moment for air, Cynder spoke a few last words.

"And if we both survive tomorrow's doom and destruction…I'll make sure what I said to you on the Shadow of Intent becomes…a reality…"

In the walls again, as Darst, Yapflop, Jabjab and the two Hunters kept a lookout, something caught the watchtower mole's attention.

"I say, what is that?" the mole tried to get a better look at what was coming…

Darst could only say two words: "They're here…"

**DUN…DUN…DUN…Fina-effin-ly. You're gonna hate me for stopping at here but I've been working on this for a while and I must say, I'm proud to get up to this part. Haven't really got much to say except "OMFG! BRUUUTES"…or is it? Eh. You'll find out sooner or later. **

**K, later guys, hope you enjoyed this chapter, review, feedback of all sorts and have a nice day.**


	55. The Storm

**Ok, since I still haven't got a new laptop, I've decided to use the old PC. I'm down to my last piece of backup now, let's hope it stays on. Anyway, after a three to four month gap, I bring you, chapter 54:**

Out in the darkness of the night, unable to see the edge of the land, the watchers and guards standing on the wall sense the arrival of what they've been fearing for the past few days. Darst's eyes were fixed on what was coming for them, there was no doubt on his mind that they were finally here. The Jiralhanae have arrived at Warfang.

"Are sure it's them? It's probably nothing, it's too dark for even the Brutes to attack at this time night" Yapflop tried to convince the zealot otherwise, but the little Grunt only assured himself with a lie. Jabjab also knew they were here;

"Stop lying to yourself Yap, they are here. The Brutes obviously lied to trick us into thinking we'd fight them in the morning" Jabjab pressed the little switch on his Needler, causing the shards on top to rise instantly.

The very large Hunter raised its arm cannon, bringing his shield in front to defend itself. Its smaller colony brother roared out to the mole on the watchtower, even though he wasn't able to understand the Lekgolo's language, he knew what he have to tell the guards down below his tower, on the opposite side where the former Covenant group was.

The mole grabbed his crossbow and shouted out to that group, "THEY'RE COMING, ALERT THE BARRACKS! ALERT THE ENTIRE CITY!" the call wasn't going unanswered, and this small group of guards was now going down stairs to alert the rest of the city.

"Those brave warriors are going to wake people up as they run along the streets, but everyone will receive the warning once the bell in that dome tower over by the Blacksmith is rung. Anything else that should be done Darst?" the watch mole yelled to the crimson armored Sangheili, who loaded a power cell into the concussion rifle.

He shifted his attention to the mole, nodding his head, "It's up to them to tell everyone…but for now, we'll give them time to complete their task. Jump down from there and see if you can get your buddies who are trained to use those cannons, they might come in handy" Darst was determined to get the defenses up before they see the Brutes in sight.

The mole made a quick salute before climbing down the ladder, "Okie-doki elite", touching the stone with his claw feet, he sprinted as fast as he could down stairs.

Kino's face shown signs worry, what if the call takes too long to go out. He knew that they needed the upper hand with more numbers, a few cannons on top of the walls would not hold off a Brute attack force for very long. He was in charge for the time being, so now he needed everyone to be disciplined for this battle.

"Yapflop, Jabjab, take position near the 5th cannon on the other side of this watchtower and wait for my command. We need this wall to have every single little defense we can put up" Darst ordered them. They were near the third cannon, which is stationed atop where the front gates are below.

"You got it Darst, Yapflop! Move it!" Jabjab took his order well, running down to cannon 5.

"WAIT FOR ME!" Yapflop sprinted with Jabjab, carrying his Fuel rod with him.

"Ok Hunters, move between cannon one and two and wait for my go, I'll be on the watchtower. You see any machine with a Jiralhanae behind the wheel, you annihilate it! We can't those bastards terrorize us anymore!" Darst commanded the Hunter duo. They both replied with respectful growls, taking their heavy weapons to the position that was given to them. Their footsteps were easily heard as the metal stomped on the stone below them.

Darst rested the concussion rifle on his back and ran to the watchtower, climbing to its view advantage. When he reached the top, he took out his rifle again, aiming it towards the dark land. He noticed the group was in position. The Grunts aimed their weapons without hesitation, especially Yapflop, who now knows that it's not time for games. The Hunters too were ready to wreck the Jiralhanae war machine, their fuel rod cannons charging up to devastate all who oppose them.

"(Breathes in and out) Gods…please help us" these were his last words before he would pull the trigger.

Within the walls of the Grand Atrium, at the centre where the great hall is, Hunter was conversing with the guardians about the Meadow situation. Sparx was there too, having to listen to the bickering on.

"We are again sorry for your lost cheetah, but our decision is final, we won't allow a rescue to be made when the Jiralhanae are about to walk up to the front door and pulverize the city" Cyril's voice roamed though the hall with annoyance.

The meeting has been going on for a couple of hours now, the first hour explaining what happened today mid-morning and the second asking for a small rescue party to being their lost comrade, even though Thel specifically told Hunter that it was too late now.

"I understand that we have limited time, but all I ask is to leave the city with a very small group and go to the Brute area of operations to extract Meadow from his captors, they've probably tortured him for information!" Hunter begged for their permission, dropping to his knees. But alas, Terrador shook his head.

"We need everyone here Hunter, they'll be here soon, and we need you leading the cheetah tribe along with Prowlus. Meadow's capture…or supposed death is on his head, and you shouldn't be an accessory to his mistake" the large dark sage dragon was not letting a great warrior like Hunter to waste his life trying to get one individual out of the deadly enemy's hands, for the danger was too great.

Sparx flew up to the orange cat's head, making a somewhat assuring attempt to turn Hunter's intentions towards defending thye planet, "Look, it may be bad that he's taken captive by those hairy bums, but for once I agree with the old geezers over there. It is absolute suicide, and I should know, I almost gotten split jaw leader killed" the glowing dragonfly told Hunter the Brute encampment suicide mission when Thel and Spyro were out looking for Cynder. The cheetah got a shock out of it and lost a bit of respect for Sparx.

But nevertheless, Hunter sighed in defeat. He stood back on both feet, looking down at the stone ground, ashamed, disheartened. He has let his friend fallen into the hands of an enemy that shows absolutely no mercy. An enemy that will soon be upon them.

"I have wasted your time guardians…Can I ask for your forgiveness?" Hunter looked up to them with the most regretful of faces.

"Our forgiveness and our blessing Hunter, we wish you good hunting and good luck in the forthcoming battle ahead. Don't let the past get in the way of the present" Volteer gave the strong willed warrior their word, and reassuring also to keep his head clear and unclouded.

Hunter bowed his head and stood up, walked away respectfully. As he was leaving though, about to exit the great hall, one of the mole guards from the wall came sprinting around the corner. The cheetah warrior quickly reacted, stepping out of they way as the dark blue armored guard ran up to his superiors.

"Young warrior, what bring you here in such a hurry?" Terrador politely asked his follower, who panted heavily from all the running.

"(Pants) Brutes! (Pants) They're coming! (Pants) Darst and some other aliens have set up small defenses; we're alerting the rest of the city in hopes of getting the advantage" the guard, absolutely exhausted, dropped to his knees trying to catch more of his breath.

Each of the old dragons looked at each other in disbelief, "But didn't the Brute leader say it was in the morning?" Cyril asked.

"He must've lied, probably thought they could lure us into thinking otherwise" the little fur ball slowly got back up.

Terrador grumbled, a dishonorable way to invade their city. "Volteer, go with Cyril to evacuate the innocent to shelter, tell them to go down into basements, hiding spots, the back of the city where most of the stronger and more withstanding buildings are. Whatever it is, make sure they stay there" the large elder dragon made civilians a priority. Volteer and Cyril, without words, lumbered their huge bodies outside the hall. Hunter had to go to Prowlus and tell their tribe to get ready, running to go outside the Atrium.

"Go find your group, thank you telling us. Get a move on warrior" Terrador demanded the guard, saluting and sprinting out of the hall. As soon as he was out of sight, the noble Earth guardian stepped over to the nearest window, looking out to the night covered city.

"I guess it's time for my own being to get a workout once more…"

At a higher level towards the apex of the grand building, inside Cynder's room were two sleeping teenage dragons. Tired from their passionate moment together, Spyro's front paws were over and under Cyn's upper body, keeping her close and under him. Cynder was facing away from the purple dragon, but covered by his wings to keep her warm, even though she was still in metal armour. Their tails were tightly intertwined, showing their unbreakable bond together.

The black dragoness' body slowly started to move, slowly fidgeting around and opening her eyes gently as possible. She could see out the window that night was still around, but maybe not for much longer. Her eyes shifted down to see her position on the bed, curving her head around to see Spyro breathing on her neck.

"Mmm…he just couldn't resist holding me…males will always be males" she sighed, but happy to see that Spyro will always be there for her. As she didn't want to wake him up, she untied her tail from Spyro's and wiggled out of his grasp.

Landing on all paws, she stretched her body to work out the small crack noises she could hear, but she was partially limited due to the armour. Nevertheless, she trotted up to the window and the edge, standing high up to see the city and enjoyed the refreshing chill go down her spine.

She wasn't smiling, nor was she sad. Whilst Cynder enjoyed the comfort of her partner, it was only a matter of time until they both had to part ways for the battle against the Jiralhanae. Spyro had to fight his own battle and Cynder with her own, for if they both fight together, they would draw too much attention to themselves and eventually ended becoming Magnaruckus' primary target. That monster would stop at nothing to kill them, especially what she had done to his eye.

"We have to do what is best for our well being…I can't let emotion get in the way of fighting, it's too risky. I just hope he'll stay out of a ton of trouble. We need to win this battle by any means necessary" She spoke quietly, reassuring herself that victory had to be theirs, if she wanted her future to come true.

Suddenly, there was the sound of a loud banging noise. The dragoness widened her to what it was, coming from somewhere in the city. It banged again, a dreadful and horrible sound that could have led to one thing. She looked down to where the war bell was situated. That was where it's coming from, two moles holding onto large pieces of rope and pulling it towards them and back.

"…Ancestors…they're already here…" her mind spoke aloud, her heart racing extremely quick. She could glimpse of moles exiting buildings, large masses of civilians in panic. Battalions of armed moles were swarming out of the plentiful barracks, with crossbows and swords at the palm of their hands.

Cynder's forearms were trembling, a reaction to thinking about the battle, but she knew they were coming. Right now, she must battle the beasts, or die trying. Cyn pushed away from the window's edge and jumped on the bed to get Spyro up.

"Spyro…Spyro, open your eyes!" the dragon continued to snore in his sleep, proving Cynder's attempts almost useless.

"For ancestors sake Spyro, please get up!...Grr" she exposed her teeth in frustration, so to wake him up she placed her right forepaw on his head and her left on his right arm and started shaking him.

"SPYRO! WAKE UP DARN IT!" Cynder yelled at the top of her lungs, echoing throughout the room. The purple dragon was finally out of his slumber, getting up in fright from Cyn's yelling.

"Ungg…Cynder? What the heck was that for?" he wiped his eyes and spread his wings out, feeling the stretched bone cracks within the edges of them.

"I'm sorry to wake you up like that but you were snoring like an ape addicted to dark crystals, and that's some bad snoring" she smirked with a bothered tone of voice.

"Hrm…that's because I was having a wonderful dream…" his expression said everything she already needed to know.

"Yeah? Keep dreaming, cause it isn't happening for a VERY long time" she jumped off the bed, leaving a very disappointed Spyro on the bed.

"So why did you wake me up in the first place? It isn't morning yet" he could see the night out still, but this leads Cynder to her next topic.

"Do you hear that bell out there?" she shifted her attention towards the window. As he cleared his mind to hear what Cyn was listening to, it was the sound of a bell. A big bell.

"Wait…that's the war bell…but it isn't…oh those lying beasts" Spyro growled angrily, walking off the bed to confront the dragoness.

"We should've known that they would do this, Mag never had any intentions to let us be ready for battle" Cynder felt an itch on her left wing, bringing it over to her maw and scratched it gently with her teeth. Spyro paced around the room, anxiously hoping that his own battle armour fixed and fully repaired from the damage he sustained at the Shadow of Intent.

"I don't feel ready enough, I'm not properly equipped to fight. I have to go to the Blacksmiths and get my armour on immediately" Spyro ran up to the window and was about to jump out, but something just popped into his head, "Cynder…are you going to be ok on your own?" he walked back to her.

"(Sigh) I'm glad you're out to protect me, I really do…" she heard another bang from the bell, "But I can take care of myself. I know it's hard for you to leave me alone for a couple of minutes and I don't blame you, just this once though…let me kill something without having you to do it for me. Can you do that for me?" her face was irresistible, her innocent but proud tone of voice. Spyro had to admit it.

"Be careful then Cynder. I want to see you alive and still with me. I still remember what you said back on the Shadow…" Spyro nuzzled against her face.

"Hmm…It's hard now that we found out that I'm infertile…but there must be a way to cure that, there always is a way. But that isn't important right now, now go Spyro, go get your armour. We fight now, or we die defending till our last breath" Cynder walked past him towards the window and waited for Spyro to leave.

Wiping away all the sweet emotion he had, Spyro ran towards the window, opening up his wings and taking off through the window, saying a quick goodbye to the dragoness, "Take care Cynder, fight long and hard".

She sighed when she watched him fly away from her, "…I love you Spyro" and with that, she took off from the building and sped towards the front of the city.

Arbiter was kneeling on the edge of the Library's rooftop with his carbine in his grasp, staring at the ringing war bell with a precise and deadly gaze. The warrior blood within him circulated around his body, feeding off the noise to strengthen his resolve, his mission to destroy every single enemy he encounters. On the cobblestone ground, he could see mole guards rushing to different homes, shops and barracks, attempting to wake up the inhabitants.

"EVERYONE GET UP NOW, ENEMY FORCES WILL SOON ARRIVE"

"Move it! Move it!"

"Out of your beds, they're coming!"

It was like the end was nigh, all people could do were run to safest place they could think of. Many of the moles were just innocent people, soon about to become victims of a vicious fight. The lightly armed but numerous Warfang forces readied their weapons and armed themselves with as much ammunition as possible, mostly just arrows and small knives though. They put on their newly made armour created by the hard working blacksmith employees, who spent a couple of days without sleep to make this much stuff for their soldiers.

Arbiter, without the hesitation of falling off, stood and rested the carbine on his back. As strong as he was, it would be dangerous that he's still got his chest still healing up from the chieftain Drektus' assault. It's too late now that the Brutes are incoming, too late to do anything about it. With speed and determination, he jumped from the Library rooftop and landed, rolling forward on the building next to it, towards the front wall. Getting up, he noticed Cynder flying overhead.

"I pray that the gods are with you and Spyro, Cynder" he didn't stop at this rooftop, he continued pressing forward, jumping rooftop to rooftop, having more speed and strength than any human. He used this as a way to get to the wall quickly.

At the lower level of the Grand Atrium, Tetrestu awoke to the sound of the bell finally getting to him and the rest of the Sangheili. He jumped from the bed and quickly re-equipped his armour, rushing in hopes the Brutes haven't hit yet. Dropping to the floor, using his hands to slide out his chosen weapons from under the bed and place them at his thighs.

"By the rings, BY THE RINGS!" he sprinted out of his room, going door to door down the hall and kicking them wide open, immediately frightening Sarvasu and Tesk.

"Get up warriors! Do you hear that ringing? It means only one thing, NOW GET DRESSED AND GET ARMED! MOVE IT!" He knocked Veatra's door, being respectful to the female Sangheili, "I hope you're awake and you heard that miss".

"I heard, I heard!" she replied, shouting from the inside the room.

Tesk was the first to walk out of the rooms, "Where's our captain?"

Tet turned to his comrade, "Probably still out and about in the city. It's best we find and meet up with him first and get some orders. Wait for the other the two to come out first" suggesting that it was best to find Ventor first, they waited patiently for the other two.

It only took around 30 seconds for Veartra and Sarv to get them selves prepared. They both came out of their rooms, reuniting as a squad.

"Ok, let's get this over with then" Sarvasu cracked his neck side to side.

"C'mon then, we have no time to waste!" Tetrestu starting leading the small group out of the building through the many halls of the Atrium's massive infrastructure.

Whilst most of their minds were set on the forthcoming battle, Tesk's eyes were fixed on the cunning and sleek Veartra. Every time he looked at her, there was someone in the back of his head telling him to protect her with his life, to make sure she'd never get hurt. The reason for this was unknown to him.

Veartra curved her head around and caught Raskar red handed, "Tesk? Tesk! Could you stop staring at me and focus on the situation at hand?" she made him get out of his trance.

Tesk was fully embarrassed and looking down at the ground he was running on, ashamed that he stared at Veartra like that. Sarvasu slew down to run along with Tesk, nudging him in the right arm with his Repeater.

"You're eyeing on her aren't you?" Sarv whispered, grinning with a sly face.

Raskar widened his eyes in total surprise, "What? No, I just…Baa! Are you seriously talking about this when we are on the brink of being shot?" the young warrior tried to hide his feelings, using the battle as an excuse.

"C'mon Tesk, she's a good catch, no argument there" Sarv turned his attention back to the path in front of them.

"Now's not the time!" Raskar snapped at him, but Sarv calmly chuckled inside of his throat.

Near the city gates, Ventor climbed some stairs to a rooftop not as high as the gates themselves but still have a good advantage point where a turret emplacement can rain plasma fire upon its invading enemies. Arriving at its flat top, he knelt down and dropped the cases and proceeded to set a turret up.

Odesa pulled the cannon itself out first, setting it down gently in addition to pulling out its small tripod mount where the controls were designated. He flicked its legs out and placed it near the edge of the roof, from there, the captain lifted the turret itself then slipping it onto the tripod. The controls came online instantly, whereas Ventor started putting in a code with Sangheili language numbers.

Arbiter was on a higher roof near Ventor, so he hopped down to greet the elite with good manners, "(Landing) Evening captain".

Ventor turned around sharply, "Arbiter! I was just-" he got up and walked in front of the turret.

Thel rested his right hand on Ventor's left shoulder armour, giving him some battle buddy encouragement, "It's a good idea to place those turrets near the gates. Saves some of the troops to worry about what's coming through their front door".

Ventor cleared his throat and shook of all the nervousness he had, "Thank you Thel. Good hunting" suddenly, the turret making small beeping noises, telling them both that the plasma sentry was operational and working, turning its turret side to side, scanning the area in front of it.

Odesa picked up the second sentry brief case and ran down the stairs, having no time to converse with the Arbiter, but he knew deep in his mind that chit-chat has to be cancelled for all of the battle. The mole guards regrouped at the front gates, carrying large wooden boards to put against the gigantic doors, supposedly to help delay Brute advance.

Arbiter jumped down onto the cobblestones and ran to an area that will take him up to the top of the walls. He needed to rejoin Darst and the rest of the front guards.

Darst kept good aim at whatever was approaching the city from the darkness, preparing to bombard his enemies with deadly concussion fire. He noticed moles running up from multiple stair cases, some even putting themselves in the cockpits of Warfang's defense cannons. They readied them for the fight, their drivers pulling the levers to load a fireball.

The rest took places near the Hunters, the Grunts and everywhere else between the cannons. Kino noticed that even though the bell was going, not everyone was up.

"Where is that cheetah tribe, where is the rest of the Sangheili, Where is Arbiter and those two dragons…huh? What's that sound?" Darst turned his attention back to the dark area outside and spotted a maroon heavy plasma bolt heading straight for this tower.

"OH BY THE GODS!" He jumped out of the crow's nest in panic, a split second when the bolt hit and blew the nest into small pieces, creating a somewhat alarming explosion.

Moles stared in shock when the wooden pieces of the watchtower sprinkled around them, staring back out to the black darkness.

Darst landed face first into the stone bricks of the wall. Shaking off whatever dust that plagued his face, he stood back up with his concussion rifle in his hands and shouted in one clear voice.

"PHANTOMS!"

10 Phantoms, Jiralhanae Phantoms, flew out of the dark night, flying directly at the city front. All forward plasma guns aimed towards directed target, about to unleash their fire.

**YES, FREAKIN YES, I bought an Ethernet cord or internet cord whatever from one of my local stores, paying up a bit of money, but the old PC can now easily run the internet with reliability. I can continue the story, I can patch up mistakes quickly, whoo! I made this lengthy chapter in hopes of getting some people back into it, so I hope you enjoyed, peace out**


	56. Apes of Wrath

The incoming Brute Phantoms opened fire their front forward plasma cannons at the city's front walls, unleashing a barrage of bolts towards Warfang's defenders. It was literally a swarm of death heading straight for them.

"TAKE COVER!" a Mole warrior shouted out.

Whilst some Moles dropped to the ground in panic, some of them stayed up to return fire with their cannons and arrows from their crossbows. The Hunters raised their shields to resist the incoming fire whilst charging their main arm guns, shooting the large beams that came out of them.

"DIE BRUTES, DIE!" Yapflop shouted in sheer animosity, repeatedly shooting the fuel rod cannon.

Unfortunately, the Brutes were smart enough to avoid the incoming attacks from the resistance. They nimble in between the cannon and fuel rod and beam fire, and the arrows weren't doing much but bounce off the metal.

When those Phantom plasma bolts started pelting the front wall, it ruined some of the structure's neatly stone bricks, chipping off some of the hard work the moles have done. Some of the plasma bolts were even able to hit some of the moles standing on top of the wall, most notably the ones that were standing up. The effects were devastating to these furry defenders, some of the brave fighters lost their arms and legs depending on where the bolts hit them.

Ones that were simply blown back by the blast radius slowly got back up, not willing to back down.

"Well bugger me, war is dangerous!" shouted a low ranked crossbowman.

Darst looked up high as some of the Phantoms ascended into the sky, avoiding fire that came from the Lekgolo's or city cannons. Yapflop's shots were way too slow and dumb to even reach the Phantoms.

"DAMN THE PROPHETS! EVERYONE, KEEP AN EYE ON THOSE DROPSHIPS, THEY'RE OUT OF WEAPON RANGE AND THEY'RE GOING TO LAND TROOPS INSIDE THE CITY! FALL BACK!" Darst raised his right arm, swaying it forward to signal the mole forces to get within the streets where the Phantoms are most likely to drop their troops.

As the battle started to proceed, the Jiralhanae Phantoms continued to rain down death from above, hitting buildings and causing wide panic to any civilians who are trying to get to shelter.

Arbiter finally got to the front wall, seeing Darst from afar who was looking into the dark, "Kino, what are you doing? They're going to land their troops in the streets!" Vadam preached to Darst, trying to get him to move into the streets.

"I know…" the zealot replied calmly.

Thel got a bit enraged, "Then why are you staring at nothing?" his voice held some annoyance.

"Thel, there's only Phantoms that are attacking, where is the rest of the Brute army!" all of a sudden, Arbiter finally got the note. Darst was right; the ground force of Brutes, Wraiths, Ghosts and Choppers weren't at the front door.

"That…that's odd…but nevermind, the city is still under attack and the troops need our help. YAPFLOP, JABJAB, FOLLOW ME! Hunters, stay with Darst!" Vadam issued out orders to the 4 former Covenant members.

"Yes sir Arbiter sir, woo hoo! Let's kill some Brutes" Yapflop yelled in excitement.

"Oh boy" Jabjab shook his head and followed Thel and Yapflop.

Ventor had finished placing the last turret but his efforts were in short of useless as the Phantoms had already bypassed the wall and the automated defenses. He growled in absolute hatred, moving towards a landing zone where the Brutes are most likely to be dropped off.

Suddenly, his squad ran up behind him, shouting out his name.

"Captain Ventor Odesa, we're here and ready for orders" Tetrestu stood upright in a well mannered position, giving Veartra, Sarvasu and an exhausted Tesk the ability to finally catch up.

"Warriors, for now it looks like only Phantoms have been brought and have breached the front wall defenses, so we're going to have to stop and clear each zone they open up. Veartra, considering you have sniper weapons, head up to the bell tower and shoot any Jiralhanae that's giving us the bad shots" the veteran red armored Sangheili didn't waste any time to give out his orders. Veartra openly complied with a simple order.

"That I can do Odesa" with the gods on her side to guide her aim, she sprinted past the squad get up top to that tower. Tesk watched her go, hoping nothing would happen to her.

"Tet and Sarv, you're with me. Tesk, go get the Locust ready for combat, this force needs to be dealt with quickly before anymore arrive"

"By your word Captain" Tetrestu bowed his head with honorable discipline.

"Wait, you want me to go by myself? But what if I encounter a Brute!" Raskar panicked, his two hearts beat rapidly with an obvious sense of fright going through his veins.

"Then kill him I suppose. Look Tesk, we're counting on you to put that machine to good use. We need you and its power right now" Sarvasu tried to comfort the rookie warrior, knowing that this is probably his first major battle on the ground and the odds were already against them.

Tesk breathed in heavily, he knew he had to go into the fire in order to bring out heavier firepower they so desperately need right now. He took hold of his Needler and activated the weapon, initiating the sharp crystals to come out.

"I'll make sure to get the Locust in on the battlefield Captain" Tesk brought up the courage to receive his orders without further question.

"Thatta boy, now get a move on, we're expecting great things from you" Ventor patted him on the right shoulder, uplifting his confidence by a morsel. Raskar tried to shake off any fear he had within his own self being and ran through the street into the alley ways, hurrying to the vehicle lot.

"Do you think he'll make it?" Sarv frowned, having second thoughts about Tesk's mission.

"If he doesn't then the Locust will be of no use, because as the gods are my witnesses that I cannot drive it to save my life, let alone I've only got one hand" Ventor relinquished his plasma rifle as he spotted a dropship landing in between two large round roofed towers.

"C'MON, WE HAVE TO GET TO THAT ZONE!" Ventor yelled, sprinting down the streets, followed by the two well armed Sarv and Tet.

Civilians that weren't able to get to the back of the city in time screamed and panicked as plasma fire continuously hits and destroys their surroundings. The streets were amidst total chaos, families were being crushed by debris that plasma creates, moles trying to defend the innocent are cast down into oblivion as plasma bolt hit and completely implode them.

Hunter was able to round up Prowlus and half of the cheetah tribe. The other half went to defend the city in the eastern quadrant to help with the safety of innocent people. The north and west parts of Warfang was under siege by the Phantom dropships. Hunter and his group, being in the west, are wanting to defend this area of the streets since none of the Sangheili forces were around, and some Phantoms were going to land very soon to drop off their troops.

"Hunter, about Meadow…" Prowlus regrettably said to his comrade, armed with his trustworthy sword and a concussion rifle he took a while ago from the elite's armory.

"It doesn't matter now chief, dead or not, we need to worry about what the Brutes are going to do to us. As much as it pains me to say something like that, we have to fight off these savage invaders. Take a few of the more technological weapon holding cheetahs and follow where that machine is going, I'll take the rest and follow another vessel" Hunter could not bear to say that about his fellow warrior, especially the one who was captured by Grublins at one point, but he hadn't got much choice in the matter as he told Prowlus what must be done in order to keep the city from burning down into the ground.

"I usually give the orders around here Hunter…" he looked straight at the dropship lowering its mass closer to the streets, "but I'll let it slide this one time. Good hunting warriors!" Prowlus took the tribal warriors holding Covenant plasma rifles, carbines and one with a plasma launcher down near the Infirmary, where one of the Phantoms will drop its troops nearby.

"How should we combat these beasts Hunter? If they're large, where are we to aim our bows?" one of the tribe warriors in blue garments asked his loyal leader, having not seen an actual Jiralhanae.

"Aim anywhere except for where they're covered in armour, otherwise our arrows will simply scratch their paint job. Now come, enough bickering around, let's show these muscled freaks what we cheetahs are truly capable of!" Hunter, with his bow in the palm of his hands and a quiver on his back carrying at least 20 to 30 arrows, he led the less tech wielding cheetahs towards the enemy landing their troops.

They instantly shouted in one voice, knowing their own land will too be attacked if Warfang falls; "FOR AVALAR"

Cynder was high above the fight, looking down on the city that is already in smoke, reacting from the damage that tolled Warfang. She had noticed that there were only Phantoms around, no ground forces, Scarab, not even Banshees that usually assisted Phantom drop zones. It was like half their force was running late, or that these Phantoms were early.

Either way, people were dying down there; masses of innocents became giant targets for the Phantom front forward cannons, buildings becoming rubble after all that the moles have worked on for ages rebuilding after the war. It was beyond a bloodbath. Cyn couldn't withstand the sight of so many brave warriors and defenseless families become part of a casualty list.

"This is murder…this is unorthodox…those savages think that they can just waltz into our city and kill everyone? It was bad enough having Orcs, Apes and Grublins attacks our people and city centers…but at least they didn't have plasma weapons…WE WILL NOT TOLERATE ANYMORE OF MAGNARUCKUS'S PLANS TO DESTROY US, THE FIGHT BEGINS NOW!" Cynder the black dragoness, fueled by vengeance, fury and courage, dive bombed towards the city in the northern quadrant, where most of the Phantoms were landing.

She planned to destroy a Phantom before it gets to land Jiralhanae forces. With new armour and knowing a Sangheili brother in arms is with her all the way, she had the confidence to go against an entire Brute army. She could feel as she freefell through the sky the blood within her boiling, itching to fight the savages with all her might. She wanted to leave her mark in Magnaruckus's annihilation, to make him remember that the dragons will not bow down before his feet.

Faster than any Seraph or Banshee, the dragoness folded in her wings to increase her dive speed. She spotted a Phantom flying near the Blacksmiths that was in the northern quadrant. She knew Spyro was probably there, so her first attack will be against this dropship. Cynder was closing in to the ground, so at the last possible second, her wings spread out within in a second and brought up within her maw a powerful ball of shadow, black mist was shooting off of it.

Cynder shot the attack out of her mouth, heading straight for the Phantom's engines. Combined with the speed she gained from dive bombing, the shadow ball was going to have massive results against the flying Brute war machine. Inside the cockpit, warning signals were going off, telling the Brute driver an object was about to hit. The Stalker panicked, knowing the dropship was vulnerable during the drop-off.

"SOMETHING'S GOING TO HIT! I CAN'T SHAKE IT" he shouted out to the cargo members, which was full of…Apes.

The blast hit with striking success, causing an explosion that completely wrecked the Phantom's ability to fly. The whole hindquarters of the dropship was open to view, which some of the Apes growled in reckless behavior, jumping out of the cargo hold before the ship crashed.

It spun out of control, heading straight for one of the smaller cube like market stalls. It crashed into the stalls, creating an explosion that could be heard from far towards within Warfang. Cynder was in complete shock, not from the Phantom's destruction, but the passengers that escaped their supposed doom. 11 Apes successfully escaped death and are now ready to exact their revenge for what's happened in the past.

"Those are Apes! Where's the Brutes! They're using the Jiralhanae dropships…what have you done Magnaruckus?" memories were suddenly brought back to her, remembering her position in command of legions of these beasts. She knew they wanted her blood spilt for betraying their leader Gaul, and helping Spyro in his campaign against the Dark Master.

One of the vicious black haired baboons looked up to see where that shadow blast came from. He saw the black dragoness hovering in the air, flapping her wings to stay in flight. The Ape smirked deviously, knowing who she was behind all that armour.

"There she is! The traitor!" he called out to the rest of his clan brothers, all turning their attentions above their heads. They shouted in a fearsome manner, a couple of them pulled out their own hand made blades that have curves to them, as well as supplied Brute Spikers. This was proof that Magnaruckus supplied them with their own technology.

"I thought all the Apes turned into skeletons by Malefor, punishment for not being fully devoted to him…that hermit is wrong, they're still some covered in their own form. That means-" She looked out towards other parts of the city. Apes were howling in unison as they jumped into the dropship gravity lifts and met heavy resistance from building covered moles.

The Apes had an advantage over the moles though; most of them were armed with Spikers, Brute shots and even a couple of gravity hammers to the much taller ones. They tore through the mole's cover and defenses of building cover and barricades in the streets. The barricades were only meant to delay their advance, being only furniture and disposable waste.

"I thought Brutes were supposed to invade us!" a Mole lead warrior shouted out to Ventor, having no idea what he and his elite comrades were against. Sarvasu was in cover behind a small alley barricade whilst Tetrestu fired upon these strong enemies with his Plasma Launcher from a window just a storey above the street.

4 plasma bombs were launched at a single Ape, who side stepped to the right behind the corner of the nearest building. 3 of them missed, but the fourth was able to home in on the Ape, coming around the corner and stuck on his face.

"RARGH! WHAT IS TH-" his face was engulfed by a blue explosion. Tet saw his body drop dead, seeing blood run on the cobblestones.

Ventor shouted back across the barricaded street to mole in charge of his garrison fighting the incoming Apes, "That's what Thel told me! Darst too!"

"What are they Captain?" Sarv peeked around the corner to fire a few Carbine shots at a single Ape, who felt its radioactive material pierce his skin. It stepped back in pain but whilst still standing, it shot back at Sarv with its Spiker, 7 of the shards impacting the corner where Sarvasu stood behind.

"I have no idea Sarvasu! Just keep them occupied! We can't let these beasts breach this barricade" Ventor blind fired his plasma rifle at their enemies, some of them took shots, bleeding, but not stopping their gradually slow advance.

"They're called Apes Odesa; we fought against them during the war against the Dark Master! As dumb as they are, they're dangerous opponents, almost as dangerous as Jiralhanae!" the mole shouted to the Sangheili warriors as his position started getting suppressed, "It looks our sworn enemies have made an allegiance with your enemies, giving them a small uplift with their weapons and war machines!" the mole figured out that the Brutes and the Apes have allied themselves to fight against the resistance. He poked his head out and quickly fired a crossbow at an approaching Ape armed with a Brute shot, shooting an arrow at his chest.

Angry that the mole put a successful shot at him, the blue and white masked commander threw away his weapon and drew out his blade, proceeding to run at the barricade with a bloodlust to kill the mole lead guard and Ventor.

The lead guard peeked back over and saw the rampaging commander coming right them, gasping in horror, "HERE COMES A VERY ANGRY BABOON!" the mole drew out his sword, being stainless steel and resembles a classical combat knife, being a bit bigger.

Ventor raised a brow to wonder why the mole made this act, though he soon found out why as the Ape commander jumped over the barricade and landed behind them. With quick reaction, Ventor dropped his plasma rifle and relinquished his energy sword, unable to hold both due to his lost left hand.

"You will die like the furball you are! And you shall be killed on our world split jawed freak!" it insulted the both of them.

"Not if you fall before our swords first!" Ventor bellowed as he ran towards the beast that was twice his size, swiping his sword horizontally and diagonally, forcing the commander to back up whilst the mole flanked around the Ape.

Taking its chance, the commander blocked a swipe from the energy sword with his curved blade. It stunned Odesa by the fact that a steel blade blocked something as intense as Ventor's energy sword, it regularly cuts through steel. Why is the Ape's blade able to block it?

"How in the galaxy are you able to stop my weapon? Its pure energy!" Ventor yelled, more than dissatisfied with this turn of events.

"If our blades can hold off elemental attacks of the dragons, than so can your race's plasma and energy weapons…" the Ape commander grew an evil smile on your face on his face, beyond disgusting to look at.

Suddenly, the mole guard leader and jumped on the Ape's back and repeatedly stabbed his back, piercing through it's spine and muscles, releasing a torrential spurts of dark red blood on his fur back and the ground cobblestones.

"ARGH! GET OFF OF ME MOLE! I'LL RIP YOU TO PIECES!" the behemoth of an Ape tried to reach for the mole attached to his back, pushing Ventor away with the curved sword and tried to stab the mole with it.

"VENTOR, DO SOMETHING! AGH!" the Ape's blade impaled the mole's right side thigh, pulling him off but his sword stayed in the Ape's back. He brought the mole around like a fly hit by a swatter.

"I'll make this quick and painless as possible for you…" he grabbed hold of the mole's head with his left palm, preparing to rip it off from his shoulders.

Ventor ran at the both of them, ramming into the Ape commander's front, dropping the blade and the mole stuck with it. The Captain was on top going in for the energy blade stab to the Ape's eyes, but he resisted by holding Ventor's right arm up with his left hand.

"YOU WON'T WIN! WE'LL KILL YOU AND THE REST OF THE SANGHEILI HERE, AS WELLAS THOSE DRAGONS!" the Ape held against Ventor's attack desperately, trailing his right foot to try and push him off.

"THAT WILL NEVER COME TO PASS APE!" Odesa wasn't able to notice the foot on his stomach until he felt himself being forced off. The masked baboon kicked Odesa off of him, hitting hard against the cobblestones on his back.

The Ape raised himself back on his feet, not caring about the blade in his back as it dripped his blood. Ventor flipped his body over, noticing he accidently lost his energy sword, which the Ape grabbed while it was still active. The mole pulled the commander's blade out of him and saw the event happen before his eyes. He wasn't able to get there fast enough because of the gapped wound the curved blade left.

"Your time is up elite" the Ape raised the blade against its owner. Odesa watched as his own weapon was about to strike. Sarvasu saw the moment from a distance.

"NO! CAPTAIN!" he called out.

The Ape commander howled as he was bringing the sword around, but a stray beam entered his skull, destroying his brain. Ventor rolled to the left as the body dropped on the ground, losing grip of the energy sword.

Sarv, Ventor and the mole lead guard looked up at the war bell tower, seeing Veartra sniping from a distance with her Beam rifle. She just saved her squad leader from an Ape commander.

The mole, wearily groaning from his wound, commented on the female Sangheili's sniping, "She good. (Coughs) That's some nice shootin' right there, where his stupid brain is".

Back near the Blacksmiths and the newly done Phantom wreck, Cynder fought off the mass numbers of Apes that attacked her on the ground. One of them tried to impale her with a Spiker's blades, but she rolled her body forward in between the Ape's legs. Back on all 4, she turned around and stabbed the baboon with her scythe pointed tail. It shrieked in sheer pain as her sharp end came out the front, pulling out some of its intestines within the gap of her scythe.

Another beast was going to shoot her, being vulnerable as she stabbed his comrade. Cyn reacted quickly, breathing red rings of fear to push the Ape away, giving him images of extreme fright.

"AGH! I DIDN'T DO IT KING GAUL! I'D NEVER BETRAY YOU LIKE THAT!" he screamed in pure horror, seeing his dead king in front of him with giant cleaver like swords rose to kill him.

Cynder pulled her tail out from the drying ape, dropping like a case of bricks to run on top of the ape under her fear influence, impaling the sides of his head with her wing thumb blades, finishing him off. She grunted as she jumped off the dead Ape's corpse, seeing an Ape commander with a black and red mask running at her with a curved sword.

As he was about to slice her in half, she shadowed herself underground, completely evading a fatal attack. At the right moment, the dragoness shot out of her shadowy ground with wings folded in to head butt the commander bottom jaws. A move that gets him knocked back into two of his brethren.

She landed back on the cobblestones, gasping for a quick dose of air, becoming a bit tired thanks to the weight of her armour. Her face revealed a dragoness's desperate stare at her enemies, knowing she is still outnumbered and outgunned. Her skills were masterful, but will it hold out against 9 more Apes that contain a huge grudge and desire to kill her without mercy.

"I (inhales and exhales) have to (gasps for more air) defend the Blacksmiths. Outnumbered or not…" she got in a defensive position, lowering her body closer to the ground with her wings spread out and tail swaying side to side, "…I have to give Spyro a bit more time".

Stumbling, the 3 Apes finally got back upright and roared in anger at the dragoness in response to that dirty tactic. The rest of the Ape group started surrounding her. With two of their brothers dead, they weren't going to leave her alive now at all.

"Kill the traitor!" the Ape commander pointed right at her, all of them pointing their Spikers and crossbows at her, firing at once.

Thinking smartly, she breathed in to unleash a gust of wind around her, curving her head around to blow away the sharp projectiles. The spikes lost speed and either dropped or were blown right back at their shooters, the same goes for the steel pointed arrows.

Running out of spikes within the clips, they ridded of their clips and tried to replace them with new ones, but some of the Apes were stabbed in the chests by their wind blown spikes and arrows, injured by their own weapons. The commander Ape growled as his own brethren's weapons were for the moment turned against them.

This gave Cynder the opportunity to fight back, running at one of the disabled Apes, who was closest to the Blacksmiths, had a spike in his chest and right knee, both causing sever pain and slow bleeding. The black dragoness protruded out her front claws and slashed his chest and face, causing highly fatal bleeding on both body parts. She finished him off by clawing out his neck.

His dark red blood squirted onto her armour, even her face. She marked herself with the blood of her enemy, a trait a Sangheili would moderately do. As the body dropped on the ground, she looked to her left as an Ape fired a Spiker at her.

She evaded in the air to her right, but one of the spikes impaled her front left arm, screaming in utter pain and spilling some of her own red body liquid. The armour wasn't able to repel a shot that close to her, let alone it was a thin piece of metal. She bit down on the spike and pulled it out quickly, the reaction made her squeal even further from the pain.

The shard landed in front of her covered in the dragoness's blood. She felt the strong sense of throbbing in arm, but she could still walk at the very least. She knew in her mind it was only a matter of time until they finally weaken to the point where she won't be able to fight anymore, and she wouldn't survive the next lot of attacks they would throw at her.

She talked to herself within her head, "I can't hold out much longer, and there's no help around! But I'm not giving up!" she exposed her sharp, jagged teeth at the Ape who shot her and sent a flurry of poison balls from her mouth at the attacker. Some of the liquid poison splattered around parts of her mouth.

The poisonous balls of green death splattered all over the Ape's front end, even catching onto the Spiker. In panic and serious pain and illness, as well as being totally blind, the Ape warrior jumped in total panic and ran at one of his clan brothers.

"AH! AH! IT HURTS! STOP THE STINGING, SOMEBODY!"

One of the soldiers noticed him getting closer and closer, "GET AWAY FROM ME YOU IDIOT!" but his brother couldn't hear him over all the shouting and shrieking, smacking into the other Ape and catching the goo on his own self. He too felt sick all of a sudden, puking out whatever he ate tonight and even some of his salty dark blood.

Cynder wiped all the green goo off her mouth, being immune to her own attack. In rage, the Ape commander ran over to the dragoness and kicked her in Cynder's left side, sending her sliding across the cobblestones and into the Blacksmiths front building wall. She felt a sharp stinging pain when she groaned, standing back up.

"Ung! I should've seen that one coming…that actually hurt" Cyn moaned in consistent pain, feeling the brute force from that hit.

She looked at her slowly approaching attacker, her eyes centered at this Ape who wanted her dead more than any other Ape in the city. The sense of absolute terror surged through her veins, feeling the presence of pure evil approach. Her emerald eyes gazed upon the tall and muscled stature of this commanding Ape.

"Nowhere to run this time, no tricks to use against me…former Terror of the Skies…" he smiled like the devil, desiring to end Cynder's life slowly and painfully, wanting to hear her scream louder and longer after all the devastation they've been given in the past couple years because of her and the purple dragon.

"You kill me Ape, the others will hunt you down for what you have done…and they will make you suffer" she threatened him but this only made him laugh, overconfidence slowly got the better of this Ape.

"Ha ha ha ha! You're definitely pushing it Cynder. Who in the world cares about you after what you've to them, after what you've done for us" he was trying to break her spirit, knowing that would always work with Cynder. This time though, it didn't.

"After all I've been through these past few days…everyone cares about me…especially Spyro and Thel…no one gives a damn about you" she spat at his face, blinding his eye sigh and making him step backwards.

He wiped her saliva from his beady little eyes, "You little insect!" he roared, but suddenly a large flame smashed against his right side.

The anomaly sent a right burnt sided Ape commander back towards his group, who stared with jaws dropped. As the flame around him disappeared, Spyro, wearing his suit of golden armour that the moles repaired for him, walked towards Cynder. Her soul felt so relieved to see him still up and kicking, as well as noticing the protection he wore.

"Took some time for the moles to put it back on me, the armour feels like new. How long have you been fighting them for?" he was concerned for her situation, noticing she's already been through one heck of a fight.

"For about 10 minutes. I feel more relieved now…" she smiled at him, beyond glad to have him by her side once more. The moles who worked at the Blacksmiths started running out, armed with crossbows and the heaviest of armour. Their leader who was still dressed in black had armed himself with a small crossbow that was attached to his left wrist, holding a very sharp cutlass sword against the Apes who were helping their commander get back up.

The purple dragon noticed she was bleeding on her arm, seeing it as a gapped wound, "Cynder, you're bleeding!" he covered her wound with his front right paw, but she slowly and gently pushed him away, assuring it was fine.

"It was to be expected Spyro…I'm more concerned about the city, it's already in flames. There are only Phantom dropships…there aren't ground armies of Brutes. It's them transporting the Apes around the city" she quickly explained the situation before the Ape group in front of them decides to attack.

Spyro looked at the Apes, who got their commander back up and stared at the small number of moles, ready to fire their crossbows whenever their black armored leader ordered.

"Hmm…then I guess we need to send them back to where they belong. An ally of the Brutes is an enemy of ours…even if they are our enemies from before" Spyro got Cynder to follow him behind the mole group. It was going to end up a head to head clash.

"Grr! You dragons will never win this battle! You're nothing! The city will burn in a sea of destruction! AS WITH YOU!" the Ape commander roared, until suddenly Needler shards, Fuel rods and Carbine munitions started hitting the commander's 7 other clan brothers backsides, blowing them away and dropping them.

The Ape commander watched as they screamed and died like animals. They laid around his feet as carcasses, their bodies letting out large pools of blood, their arms and legs all around him.

"BUT…WHO…" the Ape commander turned around with such a devastating and heart breaking glare.

Yapflop and Jabjab aimed their weapons at the lone Ape. In between them, Thel unveiled his camouflage, holding his Carbine at the Brute's face. They were able to easily dispose of the large baboon creatures with such powerful weapons.

Arbiter gave his words to install even more fear into the Ape commander, "You've never faced anything like us before"

**The battle has begun. Whilst the Apes with the help of the Brutes have sent Warfang into chaos, the city's resistance is putting up a somewhat good fight, but can they defeat these Apes? And where is the Brute force Magnaruckus has at his disposal?**

**Hope you guys enjoyed the first bit of the battle, it gets really good from here. I'm going to go to sleep now as this exhausted my thinking…night night (Head falls onto the table)**


	57. Hunter counterattack

The lone Ape commander stood in complete devastation. His entire pack was wiped out in just a few seconds by Thel and the Grunt's arsenal of energy weapons, causing their blood covered limbs and corpses surround the distraught Ape. There was no way to fight the Elite and his Grunt companions, having the young but powerful dragons behind with heavily armed and armored moles in front of them, carrying crossbows and large daggers.

He shouted out to his other worldly enemy, unafraid of what Thel might do to him, "You scaly scumbags! Look what you've done!" the Ape rolled over a dead body, seeing a scarred face from the needles created from the combine explosion, "They're dead, my pack is dead because of you!" he jumped right back up, pointing his curved blade at Arbiter.

"You would've done the same to us beast! I rather it them than everyone who surrounds you" Thel looked over the Ape's shoulder to see the Blacksmith's mole group conversing fully around the commander's position forming a circle like the Apes did with Cynder.

Whilst on the subject, he noticed Cynder's gapped leg wound, slowly oozing out her red body liquid. She was tensed by the hit made by the Spiker shard, covering it using her other front paw. Spyro noticed her condition, trying to lower his head down as if to see he can help it but she politely, still firmly, used her right wing to push him away, assuring him that she'll be fine without assistance.

Thel looked back at the Ape with an aggressive exposition of teeth, lifting up his Carbine and pointed it directly at his soul broken foe. It sought Vadam as an intimidating, never have seen an alien before, especially one with a vast arsenal of weapons.

Arbiter treaded lightly towards the hairy but grossly giant baboon, still keeping his aim, "If you don't mind beast, I'd like to ask a few questions from you before I decide your fate", it was obvious he needed some answers, specifically ones that concerns the whereabouts of the large Brute army Magnaruckus promised to bear down upon the city.

"RARGH! You're not getting anything from me Arbiter! I die before I give you information" the Ape brought his sharp sword around, and with just one arm, he planned to commit suicide to ensure no words are given.

Smartly and decisively, Thel shot the Ape's right hand to make him drop the weapon, using agonizing pain as a way to stop him. The small green beam pierced into his skin, minor radiation affecting his clawed hand. He clasped and covered it with his other hand to stop the bleeding, sensing the stinging under all that skin and muscle.

"I'm giving you the opportunity to walk out of this alive Ape, killing yourself will ruin that offer to live" he watched the commander drop down to his knees, still holding onto his injury. The Ape looked up and stared into the eyes of a Carbine lowering Sangheili.

"…What do possibly want from me elite…?" he finally gave in, defeated and having to surrender to his enemy.

Arbiter created a firm non-violent expression to keep the Ape talking, crouching down to its height. But Cynder trotted aside Thel, uncertain if this was a good idea.

"Thel, this really isn't a good idea, the city is burning and you want to have a chat with this thing? We have to get moving" she tried to talk him out of this, but Arbiter would have none of it. Information was the key and he was going to get it by any mean necessary.

"I want to know why the Apes are here Cynder, I want to know why they are allied with Magnaruckus. We need to know as much as we can, now find something to help that arm of yours…its looking bad" he rested his right hand on her left shoulder, sharing his concern for her and telling her why he's going to talk with the enemy.

With a weary sigh, she limped over to a Blacksmith mole that was carrying a medical kit to the dragoness, taking out a swab to first clear the blood away. Spyro watched carefully from a distance.

Thel turned back to the Ape, returning to the grim narrowed down expression, "If you want to survive, I suggest you start cooperating. Now please tell me why Magnaruckus has enlisted your aid, why are the Apes here?" he first tried a soothing yet unfriendly tone of voice. The Ape unwillingly but still nevertheless complied.

"After large blue explosion that wiped out forest we hid in, we had no home and no place to hide from Dragons. Later, Magnaruckus and his big force arrived. They demanded we move, but we resisted. No fighting was made, but big giant Brute came out of one of those flying contraptions and talked to our leader" the commander growled after the last sentence, regretting all of this that was being revealed.

Cynder turned around and saw Thel showing a small dose of mercy to the Ape. She had never seen anyone give a shred of mercy to any Ape, even Spyro due to his hatred towards them, especially when he was against Gaul.

The mole continued to swab away any blood marks left on the armour, but when he shifted towards his medic-kit, he was surprised and annoyed to see there was no red crystals to help heal her wound. Nothing could be done without those crystals.

"Miss, I regret to inform you that I do not have anything to heal the shot. I have no red crystals" he shrugged his black armored shoulders, but Cynder curved her head back with a grateful smile.

"It's ok, I can walk without the need of the crystals. Thank you" she gave him her full gratitude. The mole bowed as she walked back towards the purple dragon, attacking the kit onto his back.

Arbiter was pleased to see Cynder could still walk, limping only every two steps she'd make, returning his gaze back to the Ape commander, "So then I'm guessing Magnaruckus wanted make an alliance with your clan?" he continued to interrogate the Ape without any resort to violence.

The Ape grumbled for just a moment, then began to speak his voice again, "Correct…leader thought it would benefit both races considering we both species are in dire times. In return for us helping them defeat you all, Magnaruckus promised to grant us new home and revenge for what Dragons had done to us Apes during the war when Dark Master ruled all" he continued to stare into Thel's orange sleek eyes, the eyes of a merciful Sangheili that was giving the enemy another chance to live.

"I find it very hard to believe Magnaruckus would offer something like that, let alone would he help others besides the Prophets" he turned around and looked at Cynder re-approaching him.

"Or maybe he's just lying to the Apes in order to acquire their forces" she stared at the Ape as strong hate against it welled up within her.

"Says the traitor of her race, he he he" he intentionally made her remind of her past, being returned with a low growl from the dragoness.

Vadam wouldn't allow the Ape get to her like that, "Only speak when spoken to! You don't want to lose your chance to live…but you dare talk to her like that again and I will make you suffer beyond your worst nightmare" the Ape shut his mouth in an instant, returning his gaze at Thel.

"Last question Ape, then I'll decide your fate…where is the rest of Magnaruckus's forces, his Jiralhanae army he promised to send against Warfang's will?" this was vital in knowing when the real battle would begin.

"Arbiter…you haven't noticed what been happening have you?" the Ape smiled grievously, confidence was showing off all of a sudden.

Thel's patience was suddenly tried, grabbing the Ape's neck and raised his sword with his right arm into the air, "Answer my question Ape! Don't think I won't do this!" Cynder suddenly stepped back in awe, seeing the fury on Thel's face. Spyro stood up prepared whilst the moles prepped their weapons

"When they finally arrive, your annihilation will come to pass…our revenge will be complete…and we'll watch this city burn to the ground in the name of Wraul and Magnaruckus! It's the end of you and the Dragons!" the Ape shouted like a religious zealot.

He forced Thel's, bringing down the black energy sword and pulled his left hand away as it sliced across the commander's neck. The overgrown baboon's head thumped on the cobblestones, slowly rolling around and revealing the dead Ape's freakish smile of evil laughter. The 4 of the moles looked away in total disgust as it stared at them.

"WHY DIDN'T YOU JUST SHUT UP! If you did as you were told you would still be alive right now, bloody barbaric cretin!" he effortlessly kicked the lifeless body towards the rest of the dark red graveyard, sickened of seeing it right in front of his face.

Cynder was beyond mentally disgusted by what Thel did, pulling away from the unsightly remains. He murdered a creature, one that was already injured and heartbroken, in a way she never thought her part Sangheili brother would even think to do. The blood seeped in between the ground's small cracks and openings, going with the rest of the Ape group's remains.

Just staring at all of the dead Apes around that one commander, Thel had no regret killing all of them, having no remorse doing what needed to be done. They would've done the same if he was in their position. He only thought it was the right thing to do, protecting the city and the ones he cared about so much from their mind set goals.

The Arbiter stood up and flicked his wrist, withdrawing his black energized blade go back into its shell. He looked back at the Grunts who looked away, not wanting to see what he did to the Ape. Jabjab peeked over his shoulder and saw Thel looking straight at them.

"Arbiter…was that really necessary?" Jabjab squeaked, scowling upon the recent.

He didn't answer Jabjab's question, looking back down at the corpse with the sense that he just plain out murdered somebody.

"Don't feel so bad Thel" he lifted his head up to the black armored mole who was in charge of the mole group, also the same one that designed Cynder's armour, "As that was just outright gross, It was just one Ape after all. Unarmed or not, he was dangerous, and it's a good thing you got rid of him" the furry but metal covered warrior attempted to make Thel feel a little bit better than he was at the moment.

He stepped out of the pools of Ape blood and limbs, back on the cleaner cobblestone ground but leaving behind prints of his feet as he walked closer to Cynder.

Her eyes slowly went up, followed by the rest of her face.

"I only did what I have to do Cynder…I couldn't bear to hear those words anymore".

She looked at the bodies, then back at Arby, "It's alright Thel. They started this fight, so we need to end it…especially if it means killing every single Ape in the city before the Brutes real forces arrive" she reminded him of what was going on right now, as the fight continued to progress.

She was right, the battle was still going on and the Apes were still pushing the mole forces back. Arbiter signaled both Grunts to join the small mole platoon. Being disciplined warriors as they were, the moles stood in lines behind Jabjab, Cynder, Yapflop and Spyro. Arbiter walked in front of them with his Carbine out.

"The Brutes have brought your enemies from the last war to Warfang city in hopes to exact their revenge for the deaths of the original Ape king and the Dark master" he passed the four most known to him, "They have allied with Magnaruckus to ensure their revenge will be complete. But I know that Brute, I know he's just using the Apes as an obsolete battering ram to weaken our defenses, to lower our morale, and to easily kill the ones we learned to become friends with. They're just shields for the real threat that's heading our way" he continued to pace in front of them, discussing the situation at hand.

"It become quite obvious that he's simply a coward, hiring others to do his dirty deeds, deeds that he needs to give a good wash for once" the Grunts snickered at the inside Jiralhanae joke relating to body odor, "So what needs to be done now is to quarantine this little Ape infestation that he's brought, and by quarantine I mean kill every last one of them! As I said from the new oath yesterday, 'we are fighting for the right to live'…I hope those words still stand by you, as they damn well better be, any less and your no better than a damn Brute" he stopped in front of them, smacking his right fist into the palm of his left one, cracking it and his neck side to side at the same time.

It sent chills down the lead black mole guard's spines, feeling a cold shiver descend upon him. Cynder shook her head with such a teasing smile, "Do you sometimes love hearing your own voice or do you just have a away with words?" she tilted her head.

The Sangheili crossed his arms, humming with a low tone of voice, "This is serious Cynder, no time for those kinds of questions" her teasing and playful side decided to hide themselves from Thel. She understood that this wasn't the time nor the place for it, "But just so I don't leave you in the dark, I guess I just like doing speeches" she openly shrugged her wings. An understandable statement, "Back to the topic at hand, we must rejoin the battle as soon as possible. Follow me into the fire, when you see the enemy…let them know who they're Fscork'ing with!" He pulled over his Carbine and reloaded its unique cartridge in whilst saying an unknown Sangheili word.

"What does that mean?" Spyro raised a brow whilst the moles loaded their crossbows and small wrist arrows.

Thel replied before turning and leading the group into the fight, "Trust me Spyro, you don't want to know" Cynder and the Grunts followed close by his side, slowing down at a good speed for them respectively.

"…But I do wanna know…Ung" the purple dragon sighed with annoyance, catching up with the moles that were behind the Jabjab and Yapflop.

Tesk was running through the empty but burning market stalls of Northern Warfang, hit by plasma bombardment from the Phantom dropships that were now partially flying over the city. Having yet to encounter his first Ape, Tesk was cautious enough to have his Needle rifle out with it raised up in case of a surprise attack.

The fires were beyond a raging inferno as one of the smaller buildings started crumbling down into a plume of dust and smoke. He bared witness to its destruction with sorrow and depression on the marks of his face, "I wish I could've done something to prevent this…maybe I can right now if I can get to that Locust" he was determined to avert this attack, to help the city's inhabitants and to stop this abrupt bloodshed.

As he came to a 4 way intersected street, he heard the sounds of approaching enemy foot soldiers. Frightened that they'd easily see him in the middle of a street, he ran and jumped into a green dumpster as no other part of the area could hide him. He paid the price for hiding by smelling all that bad food, dirty clothes and rusted armour that he was boxed in.

"Guh! That reeks beyond anything I've ever smelt before! What in the world do the moles throw away in this city?" he violently shook his head side to side.

He zipped his lips as soon as he heard 5 Apes patrolling the intersection, hunting for their enemies in the war battled city by the sense of smell. Being covered in an extremely dissatisfying garbage odor, Tesk wasn't so easily detectable.

The Apes, following their pack leader holding a gravity hammer up high, looked at every direction they could cover; the streets, the corners, the alleyways and rooftops.

Their group leader snarled, curving his head around towards the sounds of plasma fire in a distance, "Rargh! Vorich, take the 2 heavies with you and support our brothers! Keep the hairy vermin distracted while we search for the Sangheili vehicles, Wraul and Magnaruckus specifically wants them 'out of commission' he he he…" the pack leader sharply shifted his direction to an Ape lower of his class.

"Yes commander, let's go you two" the warrior's deep and disoriented voice desired 2 of his companions carrying heavy plasma turrets with two hands each. They were armored on most of their limbs including legs, arms and upper body, even wearing large crown like helmets that has a Brute chieftain look to them, spreading the same sense of fear.

Tesk's eyes widened, tremors took over his spine and his hearts started to race vigorously at one very relevant thought, "They're going to sabotage our most valuable assets" his whisper of realization was too quiet to be heard, but the Apes did as they were told by their superior officer.

Hammer Ape and his lowered ranked brethren split up whilst the warrior Vorich took the heavies to wherever the plasma fire was coming from. Tesk slowly became relieved, hearing their footsteps fade away.

"(Sighs) I can't keep hiding from my enemy like this…I must stand up for myself…for Veartra…or I will become the coward destiny would disgrace me with" Raskar shook his head in self shame, grabbing onto the edges of the garbage dumpster.

He popped his head up only to find Vorich holding a Spiker at Tesk's face, by his sides were the were the two heavy Apes pointing their plasma cannons at the same direction, smirking with the most of hellish of smiles. His pupil slits thinned in a heartbeat, sweat came pouring down from him helmet as his doom stood right in front of him.

"So you really think we wouldn't find you alien? Good hearing comes in handy you know" Vorich flicked his wrist to ready up the shard spewing firearm.

That was the only thing Tesk could hear before his demise, no battle noises, no explosions, no roaring nor Phantoms flying over. Just the Ape's words entering Tesk's conscious to exemplify what shall be inevitable. Tesk shut his eyes waiting for those spikes to take his life, never having able to actually fight or get back home.

Out of the deafness, 2 large green beams missed and drew the attention of the heavies, quickly getting Vorich to pull his firearm away from Tesk at the approaching Darst and Hunters. Their large metal shields up with the fuel rod cannons pointing towards the 3 Apes. Darst was behind but in-between the Lekgolo worm monsters, providing heavy fire support with his concussion rifle, firing 5 shots at the Apes, 2 of which hitting but stunning one of the heavies for him to start firing back.

Darst hid behind the protection of Hunter 1, having a large enough shield to stop the spread of incoming plasma bolts, "TESK! GET TO THE LOCUST! WE'LL TAKE CARE OF THIS BUSINESS!" he shouted at the very apex of his lungs, seeing blue bolts slice in between the two Hunters.

Tesk rushed to vault over the dumpster, grabbing his Needler from his thigh in case he ran into danger on the way to the vehicle lot. Vorich turned his mass right around, spotting the Sangheili minor and shooting him but he missed with 20 shards soon got out of the Spiker's range.

"You coward! The pack leader will annihilate you for running away!" Vorich rambled in deep rage, knowing that Tesk will encounter their commanding officer at some point nearest to the vehicles.

Darst continued suppressing fire on the 3 Apes, reloading his concussion rifle as the Hunters fired from a somewhat long range. Their Fuel beams were quite devastating to these heavy Apes, almost knocking them off their feet. The problem was though it wasn't doing enough damage with this kind of range, so they intended to get closer, but the closer they got the more of a chance that either the worm colonies inside their armour will get badly injured or Darst might receive a few plasma burns. Their metal shields won't be able to hold them off forever.

Hunter 2 couldn't fire as Vorich started shooting its cannon; the spikes started bouncing off but started to disrupt the firing mechanism. Every time it charged the weapon, the spikes forcefully pushes it aim away from the intended targets.

"Keep firing at those things, we need a Phantom to eventually show up and hit them from behind!" the Ape replaced a clip for his Spiker.

"Hurrr!" Hunter 2 roared in desperate need for help, as it started to bear the brunt of plasma bolts. Darst could see the Lekgolo warrior was in too much trouble.

"Hunter 2, back up a bit, you're going to hurt at this rate!" Darst forewarned the dark blue armored creature, but suddenly a plasma bolt hit its neck. Orange goo slew down Hunter's neck, leaving a plasma burnt worm colony, struggling around in pain within the armour.

"Raarrrgghh!" Hunter 1, enraged and furious as results to see its bond brother in pain, snapped. It couldn't watch Hunter 2 suffer before hairy beasts, beasts that are inferior to a larger and more threatening force like the Lekgolo.

Without hesitation nor fear, holding its excruciatingly large shield up to stop anymore plasma bolts, Hunter 1 launched itself at the heavy Apes, menacingly running in Hunter fashion. Small tremors could be felt on the cobblestones, Vorich could tell this Lekgolo was not going to show any mercy so he stepped back and let the heavies try and take it on.

Darst fell on his back when Hunter 1 went to take them on by itself, shocked and in disbelief that a Lekgolo disobeyed direct orders to hold the line, "Hunter 1! Get back here!" but it completely ignored the crimson Zealot.

The heavy Apes started to get concerned enough that Hunter 1 was an unstoppable freight train, staring at each other in such shock and fright. They dropped the plasma cannons and jumped out to the sides of the pathways, opening the moment for Hunter 1 to directly hit Vorich. There wasn't any time to get out of the way, so he used his last words wisely

"RAGH! CURSE YOU HEAVI-" All Darst could hear were the bone, guts and blood splatter the intersection streets. After getting rammed like that, there probably wouldn't be anything left of Vorich.

"That could've been me if these Hunters were still with the Jiralhanae…" Kino's widened eyes shown that he was glad Hunter 1 was with them, as well as Hunter 2.

One of the heavy Apes got up, the one that was able to hit Hunter 2's neck. He looked back and saw Hunter 1 approaching angrily. It pointed its cannon straight at his face, revealing the Ape's demise.

"Brother! Help me!" he turned to the other heavy Ape as he just got up.

The Ape's thoughts were clear enough of what he must do, "Creature, if I let you kill him, will you let me live?" the heavy Ape tried to negotiate with the worm colonies. Hunter 1 looked at the done in Ape, seeing the fury within. He couldn't believe his own pack brother would betray him like this.

"How dare you! I gave you everything you traitor! A place within the master's pack, why must you do this?" the Ape turned his attention back at the Hunter's heavy weapons, which initiated a green aura, charging it up to fire.

"Better you than me brother, you said it yourself, Magnaruckus and Wraul are using as cannon fodder just to break open a hole in their defenses. If you can't beat them, join them" the heavy Ape smiled politely at his former friend.

The beam was fully unleashed from the Hunter's cannon, completely eradicating the heavy Ape from existence. His body, his armour, his skeleton, fully took on the radiation of the fuel rod beam, turning to ash as a result of being beamed that close.

Hunter 1 pulled its gun away from the destroyed area that its beam left behind, a sizable hole that a Grunt could easily fit in. It finally decided to turn its attention to the final Ape.

"So are you letting me go now? Is the deal done?" the baboon politely asked his unbeatable enemy, hoping that it followed the terms of negotiation. It was fully revealed to him about the result.

"(Heavy evil laughter)" Hunter shook its body, using a Lekgolo's way of laughing. It raised its lethal green spewing weapon at the unarmed Ape.

He stepped back in shock, his heart skipped too many times to count, "BUT WE HAD A DEAL!" he shouted, but Hunter 1 charged its weapon nevertheless, firing another beam and screwing the final heavy Ape into the building behind. Debris crushed his body if he was still alive from the beam attack. All 3 Apes were dealt with now, all thanks to the efforts of one very gargantuan Hunter, with Darst's and Hunter 2's support.

He approached the Lekgolo monster calmly, seeing the wake of death and destruction from a closer perspective. Kino turned and looked up at Hunter 1, nodding in a respectful manner.

"Not too bad…I wonder what would happen if I let you go into a group of these beasts…" Darst smirked. Hunter 1 growled lowly, awaiting for the moment it'll be able to get a whole group of enemies and deal the same kind of punishment when they go against the elite's new oath.

Hunter 2 approached its larger bond brother, feeling its somewhat painful injury. Hunter 1 became concerned, creating a soft roar in Lekgolo language to confirm in the colonies can still fight. Hunter 2 shook its armor side to side, able to continue the fight without letting this one burn get in the way.

Darst walked in between the two Lekgolo warriors, "C'mon, the battle still needs to be fought. I suggest the Apes are starting to mass nearer to the Library, which must be where the bloodiest of the fight is, the Cheetahs will need our help…and we can't get to Tesk in time, it's up to him to get that Locust going…" he explained what he and the Hunters must do now.

Kino started to remember the fire he created during the first couple of days the Sangheili have been living in the city. He brought shame to himself knowing he had destroyed thousands of year's worth of history. He may have been able to rebuild the rooftop, but those books will never be able to be replaced so easily.

Now was his chance to get back at his shame, he plans to make sure the Library will stay standing until this whole battle is over. He wasn't going to let the moles or guardians down. He just hoped that Tesk will able to bring the Locust in time before it was too late.

**Sorry I haven't been able to post up recently, I've been doing courses and shadow days at work places in order to get experience and earn a job. I'm also thinking about which college I'm going to. Also, I met a nice girl a week ago and lately I've been seeing her which is why I haven't been able to update. Hope you have understand and I hope you enjoyed this chapter, even though this is probably mediocre compared to others I've done. Thank god I'm not up to the best parts yet. **


	58. Rise of the machine

**I accidently put up this chapter yesterday, which I didn't mean to because I mixed this up with the update, pretty much giving you guys a beta. In either case, here you guys go**

Tesk ran for dear life, holding up his Needler as he aimed towards any place where he was most likely to be ambushed by the unexpected. He was nearing the Locust, but also nearing the fact that those two Apes could already be there destroying all the vehicles, never to be used against the Jiralhanae.

"I hope Darst has dealt with those things, he has Hunters to hold them off and he couldn't fail with them helping out" he assured himself, hoping the heavy Apes can be dealt with.

He started noticing market stalls that he sprinted by, remembering this was a key area to be notified that their vehicles were nearby. As much as this was a good sign, it was also a probable and deadly ambush site. Raskar sprinted around the corner of a stone hut and in front of his eyes was what the defenders of Warfang have been desiring since the Apes first touched the cobblestones, the machine to fulfill the destruction that these bushy haired beasts of this planet so need.

"The Locust! Finally, I can help Ventor and everyone else…I might be able to take down some of those Phantoms that keep bombarding the city too. This is great!" he panted heavily, in a moment of relief and excitement.

The blue painted Locust that also has green stripes going across each of the legs was a sign of dominance over the Apes. Whilst they could handle Brute weapons of all sorts, they were never told how to operate vehicles, let alone operate one of the invading Phantoms. With no heavy ground support, the Locust has the ability to become a fear weapon to the Apes.

Tesk was too far into the moment though, as he walked towards the 4 legged fighting vehicle that was parked next to the Banshee, high on top that hut that Tesk walked around was the two Apes that had already beaten him to the lot. He failed to notice them, having to be beaten already by the enemy.

"Foolish boy. Take care of him, we'll destroy those vehicles afterwards" the commanding Ape ordered his follower next to him.

The other Ape didn't hesitate to jump down from the roof, making a loud bang onto the ground and small shaking through the cobblestones that instantly grabbed Tesk's attention. He curved his head around, as such, his pupils thinned into small lines as the Ape roared, charging straight at him with unbounded physical force.

Raskar panicked, backing up against the front left leg of the Locust and holding up the Needler. He shut his eyes and sprayed the small pink crystals at his foe, scattering it around. As this menacing Ape closed in, seeing the shots are going to miss, he suddenly glanced at the oncoming needles as they homed in on him.

The weapon was close enough to the Ape that its small homing mechanism identified him as a threat towards its user, causing the crystals to fly towards the charging monstrosity. One by one, needles pierced his chest, slowing down and dropping to his knees. As more of them landed, the objects started pulsing, creating small pinks hints of lightning. Just as the few final ones landed, the needles erupted into a supercombine explosion.

The pink mist surrounded the fallen Ape, but the group leader clearly saw that his minion failed to deliver a Sangheili body, a young one at that. Tesk's eyes opened to see that his shooting had actually killed the raging beast, seeing a corpse lying on the ground when the mist cleared.

"I…killed it?" he seemed so surprised and astonished that his horrible aim saved his life, but he just did not know about the small targeting system within all Needler personal firearms. This was a small victory for him, but it all went downhill as the Ape pack leader jumped from the rooftop and landed next to his dead companion.

"I always seem to end up having failures in this pack…nevermind though! Now you'll have to contend with me elite" he raised his Gravity hammer, courtesy of the Jiralhanae, to attack Tesk with. Raskar smiled with confidence, flicking the Needler to re-arm it with more pink crystals.

"Yeah right! I have a gun Ape, and guns trump giant hammers any day of the week" he fired at the Ape, wasting the entire amount of needles he had re-armed it with, but the Ape used the hammer's bulky head piece to stop the incoming shards, all of which had locked onto one single area instead of spread out, causing the projectiles to detonate on impact with hammer, doing so which had little to no results of effect.

"…Except when the hammer is blocking the shots" Tesk's self confidence washed away, gulping in fear as he just wasted his weapon's energy clips.

The Ape roared, charging and bringing his hammer upon Tesk. He rolled towards the Ape in panic, just avoided being crushed and sideswiped the large mammal. He jumped back up and placed his Needler at his, pulling over his right shoulder was his Needle rifle. At the same time, the Ape smashed and withdrew the hammer, turning his mass around to see the minor pulling out the marksman weapon.

Primed and ready, Tesk fires multiple high velocity projectiles at the Ape, in which his adversary ran around Raskar to get behind a market stall and use it for cover. Continuing to fire, Tesk slowly moved towards the Locust and stayed behind its heavy legs, whilst still shooting at the stall.

The leader growled as some of the needle objects actually bypassed his wooden defense, one of them ending up impaling his right elbow. He sinisterly growled in pain as the shard broke up and dissipated, readied a small wrist bow on his left wrist, the same exact design the Blacksmith moles were using.

He smiled deviously, knowing the exact time when to fire this arrow. Tesk finally drained his large energy clip, extracting the empty one and taking a new one to replenish his rifle. At the perfect moment, when Raskar had the new clip in his left hand, the Ape broke out of cover from the top, pressing a tiny button in the palm of his hand and fired a single but very accurate, fast moving arrow, one that Tesk didn't notice.

It pierced through his left arm, going in between his armor pieces and making him yelp in pain.

"AGH! DARN IT!" He accidently dropped the Needler rifle clip as a reaction to the searing wound, feeling his life essence escape.

The clip, being a cylindrical shape, rolled out from the safety and cover of the Locust's leg and out into the open, where an approaching and smiling Ape was coming towards with the Gravity hammer.

Tesk pulled the arrow out of his skin, throwing it of the way and searched for that clip. When he finally spotted it, the Ape was getting to close, but he had no choice, he only brought that one clip with him, forgetting to grab more out from the armory. He sprinted out from the Locust and went for the ammo piece, but the Ape whacked his hammer down, crushing the Needle rifle clip.

The gravitational force hit Tesk, sending him a standard market stall. When he collided with it, Apples and Oranges rolled everywhere as the young Sangheili fighter tried to get himself out of the destroyed stall. He felt a good sense of left thigh pain and had multiple bruises, as well as a few cuts. The arrow wound was now the least of his problems.

Tesk, no doubt hurt and slowly getting weaker with each hit he receives, brushed and threw away some wood that lied on top of his chest. He quietly snuck an Apple behind his back, having to drop his Needle rifle because it could only become a hindrance without ammo. The Ape approached abruptly and violently, stomping his way towards him.

Fear compromised Raskar, now that his weapons are useless and having no energy sword or dagger to defend himself with. This was his only chance to outlive this Ape before it got the better of him. Within 5 meters of Tesk, the Ape didn't hesitate to ready the hammer for another strike, preparing for a vertical strike. Within that one second, Tesk threw the Apple as hard as he could at the Ape's face.

It struck with force, the Ape stumbled around as his stinging face caused him to try and overcome the pain, but Tesk used this opportunity as a gate to his Locust, running from the destroyed market stand. He looked back to see the Ape regaining sight of his eyes, where the Apple luckily hit. This fueled the fire within this angry foe though, raising the hammer and charging straight towards Raskar.

"C'mon, c'mon, C'MON!" Tesk panicked as he pressed a couple of buttons that allowed the hatch to open for him, but it did this slowly, raising its back head ornament part.

The Ape roared as he was about to smash the front right leg of the Locust to knock it off its position, but a beam of straight and directed plasma went through the back of the Ape's stomach and coming out the other end.

His eyes widened as he noticed a moderate amount of dark red liquid left both sides of his spectrum, slowly turning around and looking up from where it came from. Veartra had eyes on the Ape with her Beam rifle, steadying her aim at its head. The tower she made as her sniper nest gave her a great view of almost every part of the northern quadrant of Warfang.

"Leave him alone you dumb, primitive brute!" as she pulled the trigger, the Ape, whilst suffering from the wound she had 'generously' gave him, reacted quick enough to raise him high enough for the bulky head to stop the incoming beam projectile, saving him from being silenced.

Veartra groaned as just noticed her shot being stopped and aimed down its very high powered scope to take another shot, but all of a sudden, she heard a faint humming behind her. She lowered her rifle curved her head around. Fear and surprise entered her body as a Phantom hovered behind her, aiming its main weapon towards her.

She screamed as the Phantom started shelling her tower, destroying the support around her to make the whole structure collapse. She hid behind the thick walls whilst standing on stairs, but it was only a matter of time until the Phantom had fully destroyed the tower, taking her with it.

"Keep shooting the building, it'll eventually crumble and crush the elite! All of these whelpings deserve a good death" A Brute captain ordering the pilot of the Phantom demanded Veartra's death to be as destructive as possible, watching as the large plasma cannon continues to fire individual bolts.

The Ape smiled as he watched his allies attack the tower, but that went away as his eyes faintly looked up, seeing a large machine's body just completely ignore him and fiercely walking towards the exit of the vehicle lot. The spine tingling whirring of the legs moving caused the Ape to fall on his back and gasp at the sight of the Locust walker, fully driven by Tesk.

From within the cockpit of his walking tank, he could see the Phantom relentlessly attacking the large stone tower. He raised a brow, wondering why the Brutes would just randomly attack a place without their entire force here.

"Wait…didn't Veartra take a Beam rifle to that tower…oh no, leave her alone you savages!" he shouted in his mind, knowing the Sangheili he cared for was soon to be killed by the creatures who took down the Shadow of Intent and killing almost the entire crew.

Pressing a few buttons that were on his left side whilst he used a few sticks to control the Locust, he made the machine to look up and aim at the sky, opening two flap panels where it held the focus rifle, overcharged with enough plasma upgrades to be just as strong as a normal Locust beam projecting weapon.

Veartra closed her eyes as pieces of the building and dust lands on her, scared that this would be the end of her, "Oh god…oh gods, save me please!" she clenched her rifle tightly as more plasma bolts hit the tower.

The Locust charged its weapon. A dark purple ball of energy welled up inside the walker, taking only a few seconds for it to be fully primed. Within a micro second, the beam fired at the Phantom's front left energy turbine that powered the dropship.

A large blue fireball imploded the Brute troop carrier, causing the turret to stop firing right on the dot. Veartra heard the sounds of the explosion and poked her head to see the event of a lifetime, watching it spin around as it struggled to stay airborne. It crashed into a small rounded hut, going up in even bigger blue flames and marking its destruction.

So stunned that the Phantom was taken down with precise and devastating power, Tesk looked at the palm of his hands that controlled the very foundation of the combined effort from moles and a few elites to build something terrifyingly powerful, but also the only hope against a large Brute force.

Veartra looked down below to find what destroyed the Phantom with little effort, and to her surprise, Tesk walked the Locust out of the parking lot, leaving an emotionally scarred Ape leader behind to suffer. Veartra decided to finish what she started by shooting the beam rifle at the beast's head.

"Thank you Tesk…I better head back down stairs, this no longer seems like a safe sniper spot…maybe I re-join with his Locust" she raced down stairs to escape the now set on fire building, now was on the brink of collapse.

While the Ape and Brute attackers still don't quite know that the Locust is now running around with an overcharged and potentially destructive Focus rifle within its armor, they soon will when Tesk comes towards a blockade that is contended between the resistance and the Ape invaders. Even so, there was a good chance that explosion from the Phantom was enough to warn the Jiralhanae about this new adversary.

Speaking of blockades, at a wall defended by the cheetah tribe and the dangerously close by to the Library, Ape foes have brought a hefty amount of equipment to gain access closer to the Grand Atrium. These Apes' Phantom had completely skipped the forward cheetah defenses near Clin's medical tent and decided to go for gold by heading straight for the Atrium itself.

At the head of this defense, Prowlus kept the tribe warriors organized and behind protective cover such as the sandbag barricade and the street buildings, firing back arrows and various small plasma weapons.

The Apes though had brought Fuel rod cannons and bubble shielding equipment to put up their own resistance against the cheetahs, which definitely caused problems as they could not get reinforcements to flank behind these foul creatures thanks to the Phantom that gave them support fire from the front and side plasma turrets.

A fuel rod flew over one of the cheetah's nearest to Prowlus, bow and arrow in hands, "Ung! It's getting a little too chaotic around here chief!"

Prowlus growled in anger, knowing that those Apes are pushing through slowly with that Phantom covering their backsides, "Keep them occupied, keep firing to intimate them into thinking we have a bigger arsenal than they do, I'll take two warriors too flank them from their right side" Prowlus handed his archer the Concussion rifle, taking a couple of orange furred, red cloaked fighters wielding bows and swords.

The blue cloaked young warrior nodded with fear and blindly fired two shots at their bubble shields, exploding on impact and do absolutely nothing to the well armed Apes inside, poking their weapons in and out to fire upon the cheetah resistance.

"Well defended kitty cats aren't they…heavies, blow them away" an Ape holding Gravity hammer ordered two armored Apes carrying Fuel rod cannons to walk out and shoot all of the rods to maximize the damage to the blockade.

A plasma rifle wielding cat screamed as the fuel rods annihilated his position, extinguishing him from existence as well as another cheetah that was crushed by fallen debris. The stunned cats had to re route a couple of their troops to reinforce the area where the carnage lied, but unfortunately, they too were only armed with bows and arrows.

As Prowlus and two of his tribe members flanked around on the blockade's left side buildings, he noticed through the long gaps of alley ways, a cat was fighting one on one with an Ape holding a curved blade, fighting off with his own fairly decent sized sword. Sadly to his horrified eyes, the Ape managed to overpower the cheetah, turning around the exhausted warrior and shoving the blade into his back and lifted him into the air. The beast threw away the body onto the blood spilt battlefield.

"Ok, there's the Ape's shield bubble…" one of the large sword holders whispered to Prowlus behind him.

Prowlus nodded; "Now we wait for the signal…" he confidently spoke back to his warriors, in which they look at him with questionable faces.

"What signal? We must strike now or our barricade will fall" the other cheetah persisted, but Prowlus rested his right hand on his left shoulder.

"Patience, if we act now, we'll certainly be making our tombstones. Warfang's defenders are no good dead, that includes us…we wait…" Prowlus insisted to stay in hiding until the right moment, staying still and very quiet as fire is exchanged between the two factions, "Wait…wait…"

As the Phantom continued to rain down plasma bolts to support its troops, it was suddenly hit by a large chunk of solid rock, denting and damaging the roof plating.

"WHAT IN THE GALAXY WAS THAT?" the Brute captain exclaimed in surprise, making the pilots swerve their craft around and slightly looked up.

Terrador flapped his gargantuan wings above the dropship, grabbing their entire attention towards him. Parts of his green mass were covered in hulky metal armor, including his head front leg shoulders.

"Get off our world you reckless fiends, go back from whence you came!" the giant green dragon's angry voice filled the fear of the Brute side plasma cannons, seeing a giant freak flyer instead of the usually spotted smaller ones.

"Look at the size of that freak flyer! Its huge!" the pilot gasped at Terrador's mass.

The captain though was not all too pleased that the green dragon damaged his dropship, so he angrily pointed towards at Terrador, shouting at his Phantom crew, "AFTER THAT FLYER, TAKE IT DOWN WITH ALL OUR MIGHT! MAGNARUCKUS DEMANDS ITS DEATH".

The Phantom flew towards Terrador's firing all the plasma cannons it had. Knowing this was a chance for the cheetahs to rebel the attack, he lured the Brutes away, narrowly avoiding plasma, from the battle zone and into the cover of night. The Apes turned around in shock, roared in annoyance and rage as they were vulnerable.

"NOW!" Prowlus shouted, he and his warriors charged through the alleyway with swords point straight and the Apes, unbeknownst to them that Prowlus entered the bubble shield, beginning to take them out one by one.

The other two warriors easily disposed of some of the more battle experienced Apes holding blades and Spikers. It was only until the Ape holding the Gravity hammer turned around and charged at one of the cheetah warriors, smacking the bottom of the stick into his gut.

The disabled cheetah fell onto his knees, receiving a final blow by the hammer in his spine, killing him instantly. The other fighter noticed his comrade lying dead, with the Ape standing over his body. He destroyed the bubble shield's power source, bringing it down and alerted Prowlus instantly.

"CHIEF!" his low toned voice called to Prowlus, curving his head around and seeing that he was behind the beast. He snuck up behind the laughing, victorious Ape to climb his back fur and impale the back of his neck through his windpipe. It was an easy kill.

"Damn these monkeys…they still persist to destroy us even though Malefor is dead…at least the blockade is safe" Prowlus looked towards his tribe members behind the barricade. Suddenly, a Mole came out from the shadows of the alleyway that was used to flank the Apes, gasping to catch his breath. From the looks of his torn up armor, he has been in a fight.

"The medical tent…it's under…heavy Ape attack! It's almost their entire attack force!" this poor thing was bleeding around his legs, two spikes had pierced through his muscles. It must've been painful to even try to run in that state.

"Damn it! That's where Hunter is…We're a few low on numbers, maybe someone else can-" the tribe chief looked above him to see 2 dragons flying overhead. Spyro and Cynder had split off from Arbiter's group to get to Clin's infirmary. The cheetah scratched his chin, knowing that they were not the only ones that were heading to the tent.

He looked down the street to see a group of black armored moles springing through the T-Intersection Street, behind them was Yapflop and Jabjab, followed closely by their commander. The Arbiter stopped just before exiting their view. He noticed Ape bodies lying dead in the street. He came to a quick conclusion that the cheetahs had fought off a hefty amount of invaders, smirking and nodding to Prowlus.

"Good hunting cheetah, most good…" he ran out of their view to catch up with the others, desperately needing to get to Clin before the Apes lay waste to his tent. He wasn't going to let that Mole die after all that he's done for him, most especially for fixing his arm after the Library fire.

So far, whilst casualties on the resistance's part has been few too many, slowly but surely the Apes were fighting a losing battle. Most major drop zones have been averted and a very small number of Phantoms have been lost. Without Clin's infirmary though, medical trained moles will have been killed and doing so would make it more difficult to treat wounded defenders.

Now most of the Ape force has surrounded the infirmary and are proceeding to eliminate the defenders of Moles and cheetahs that are willing to give their lives away to hold up against impossible odds. Above the battle though, high enough from heavy munitions fire, a maniacally laughing Wraul watches from the left side door opening, watching his minions brutally wipe out the resistance.

"Are you seeing this Jikartus? Magnificent destruction isn't it?" Wraul looked at the Brute second in command, ignoring the Ape leader completely.

"Lighten up Jikartus. This is just a prelude of what's to come. I'm surprised your troops are able to put up a decent enough fight Wraul, you deserve a spot in Jiralhanae history" Magnaruckus stepped in front of Jikartus, eliminating him from the Ape's view.

"Thank you Chieftain, your praise is…more sincere than Malefor's ever were" Wraul smiled evilly.

"That's because Malefor was still a freak flyer Wraul, and freak flyers need to die…extinction is what they deserve…" Mag saw a small explosion far in the distance of the night, outside the walls. He caught eye of Terrador flying back to the city with barely a scratch on him after luring a dropship away, "…for that exact reason" Mag pointed towards the green dragon.

Wraul took the time to see Terrador flying back, knowing exactly who that was, "Chieftain, that dragon there…that's a guardian, one of the 4 dragons we faced back in the final years of our war…he is the Earth guardian" the Ape peeked some interest into his enemy, wondering what would happen if they were to kill the giant dragon.

"Hmm…a prime target for the Jiralhanae…he along with the black and purple one will become part of a banquet soon enough…"

**Don't forget to vote in the polls about whether or not you want to see a sequel to this or not when I'm finished. So far, here are the results**

**8 people have voted: **

**6 have said yes**

**2 have said no**

**Decisions, decisions, decisions. I'm ok by the fact that 2 people have said no, because that's vote and they'll keep it at that, but the former seems to be winning right now…anyways, see you guys later until number 59**


	59. Infirmary under attack

As an Ape group if 6 moved towards the Infirmary to reinforce their primate brethren, their leader holding an engrossingly large crossbow informed them about the situation, cocky enough that they will burn each and every defender of their vital asset.

"Whatever is left of our mighty force goes towards the white tent. When all of those furballs are lying in their ashes, we will have paved the way for Magnaruckus' final assault. It will be a great and glorious victory for both Brutes and Apes" the large Ape chuckled, with a dastardly grin on his face.

Once of the lower ranked, Spiker wielding monkey's walked alongside him, wanting to know something about Magnaruckus' attack, "Boss, will the chieftain's final blow to this city be right after we burn the medical stuff or will that happen in the morning, 'cause we can't hold off an entire Mole army that arrive soon after we destroy the tent".

He huffed in amusement, "Don't worry boy and even if they join the fight in the morning we'll be able to hold those short little whelplings until Mag's army arrives, then the fun really begins to arise" a cocky smile grew once again, until a loud thump was heard behind them, raising his right arm, silently telling the group to stop and turn around.

"Something's coming, raise your weapons minions!" they all lifted and aimed towards whatever was coming around the left building corner that led to the crumbling war bell tower. The ground shook every time their foe took a step. With a large crossbow, 2 Spikers, a plasma cannon and 2 Brute shots, certainly anything could go wrong for these moderately well armed Apes.

That is until the Sangheili customized Locust started to take its turn, this blue coated walker with 2 green lines encircling its 4 legs, had noticed the Apes standing there in teeth grinding shock, widening eyes stared upon the vehicle that Tesk controlled in the cockpit.

In a purple-blue vision cam that he could see through, barely able to be maintained without proper equipment from actual Covenant hardware, he narrowed his eyes down at his enemy, pressing a couple of buttons to activate the main gun.

The activation could be heard even outside the walker, starling some of the younger Apes in the group. Their leader grew enraged, knowing that the small group that was sent to wreck the Elite vehicles had failed, decisively ruining their chances of destroying the city.

"RARGH! BLASTED MACHINE!" their leader fired an arrow bolt at the Locust, ignorantly knowing it was made of metal. The bolt simply bounced of the Locust's hood canopy to absolutely zero effect, besides scratching the paint. Everyone stood quietly whilst the breeze blew the hair of the Apes. Tesk shook his and laughed, which the monkeys could clearly hear.

"Is he mocking me?" the Ape raised a brow in annoyance. Tesk replied to his question, "No, I'm laughing at your stupidity, did you really think THAT was going to blow this up? What goes through your head is a wonder to me Ape, its no question why you guys lost the war to the Dragons, it's all because of those tiny brains" Tesk tapped his head lightly, making an example about how stupid these monkeys were.

"Now he's just insulting us…" the plasma cannon wielding minion whispered.

"Take aim brothers!" the leader pointed his finger at the Locust, all of them raising their weapons from lowering them a minute after Raskar arrived.

His laughing smile suddenly turned to panic, looking around for the controls and once again taking grasp of the sticks. As a Brute shot Ape fired, at the same time Veartra came around the same corner the Locust did and shot her Beam rifle at his head and sending his fired grenade into the air as to never be seen again.

She quickly and decisively turned her sights on the Ape leader who turned to her, shooting whilst pulling back into cover. The resulting fire of her beam pierced leader's left kneecap, feeling agonizing pain he dropped his crossbow and put pressure onto it. The rest of this pack didn't give a damn about their leader as they started firing at the Locust, spikes bouncing off the armor plating as plasma only singed its color outside. The Brute shot grenades had a moderate impact, shaking the inside the walker.

"AGH! C'mon you! Don't slow down on me" Tesk started priming the laser of the Locust, developing inside its maw as the light on the cobblestones revealed itself to the Apes.

"It's gonna shoot, run!" the Ape with the plasma cannon exclaimed in fear, feeling the chills go through their veins about the though of that weapon directly hitting them.

His pack brothers curved their heads around, seeing him sprint away from the Locust walker. Apes with the Spikers followed through with this too, dropping their weapons and ran as fast as they could, as did with the rest of them except for their leader who was crippled on the ground, and furious with the unexpected Ape retreat.

"Get back here and fight this thing you cowards! I will have your heads for this treachery!" he waved his bloodied right fist at them, cursing in Ape language straight after his sentence.

Veartra poked out of cover and saw the beast lying on the ground distracted. She whipped out her energy sword to run under the legs of the charging Locust to finish off the distracted Ape. In the meantime, the Locust fired a continuous beam of focused energy, shooting it straight at the retreating Ape warriors. It was just large enough to engulf and disintegrate their bodies into smoldering ash, apart from their arms that and legs that survived the cleansing.

Tesk dragged and controlled the beam to each Ape, staring with the plasma cannon guy first, then the two Spiker monkeys. The last Brute shot Ape successfully escaped, but terrified by the fact that his brethren at the Infirmary were in grave danger. He needed to warn them before they lose all the clan by once walker.

"YOU FOOLS! ALL OF YOU ARE FO-URRK!" the leader spurted dark salty red fluid from his mouth onto the cobblestones as Veartra drove her blade through his heart. He wasn't able to talk, curse or insult as he slowly died coughing up whatever he had left.

Mevlos ripped through the Ape out from his left shoulder, almost cutting him in half and leaving a bloody mess on the ground, not to mention as a bit jumped on her armor. With the group down to just one Ape, Tesk had no choice but to let the last one escape. Tesk walked forward, managing to avoid squashing Veartra as she picked up a Brute shot that was next to its dead user. Opening the storage of grenades, she found only 5 more inside it, and the other Brute shot that was left behind was empty.

"Maybe this will come in handy, I'm starting run low on the Beam rifle's battery" she dropped her rifle in place of her newly acquired grenade launcher whilst the Locust hovered over her.

"Hey Veartra, I think that Ape urinated itself when he saw me beam all those guys to oblivion, you see the look on his face?" Tesk thought this was absolutely hysterical, his cheeks slowly started going red but Mevlos had other things on her mind.

"Raskar, this stuff is serious. That one monkey is going to let every one of his friends know that your walking about the city, you'll be a primary target to them now" she hated to ruin his fun like this as now the Apes, and most importantly the Jiralhanae, will turn their sights on Raskar now.

His smile washed away. He thought about what they would do to him and the Locust, the amount of Fuel Rod Cannons that will rain upon him, the number of Brute shots and Spike grenades that would hammer him until he was burning in a metal casket. He suddenly felt heavy in his hearts that rapidly pumped every half a second.

"Oh by the rings you're right…I just signed my own death warrant…" he lay back on his seat, thinking of what the Apes will do if they manage to overwhelm him. Veartra tried to comfort him though, to relax his senses after her wrong choice of words.

"(Sigh) as long as you don't screw up, you'll be fine. You won't be the only thing they'll need to keep an eye out for; the Hunters can be a grave threat too. With you driving that Locust and Lekgolo monstrosities running around, not to mention other supporting fighters, the Apes will be sent running back to wherever they came from" she kept a good pace in front of Tesk's Locust, which moved at a decent speed for a walker, not Ghost fast but just above Wraith slow.

"(That's if they killed those Apes that were chasing me from before) you have a point I guess…but before they do start running, I need to make sure you won't get hurt…" Tesk mumbled to himself, in which Veartra thought he was still talking to her through the Locust's megaphone.

"What did you say Tesk? I was distracted by the Phantom" she asked to repeat himself after seeing a Brute Phantom fly overhead, completely ignoring the two Sangheili. Raskar shot his eyes open instantaneously as he didn't want to reveal his feelings towards her.

"I said…uh, I meant to say where's that Phantom is going?" he sighed in relief and hoped she didn't get what he said the first time.

She rolled her eyes knowing that wasn't it, but nonetheless she complied, "It's going to reunite with whatever Phantoms that's still strolling the skies. The Infirmary my guess is…Ugh, gotta find a another weapon soon, should've picked up one of those Spikers" she didn't like the fact that her only weapons were an Energy sword and a Brute shot with only 5 grenades

Tesk aimed his Locust upwards to see a large green creature heading towards them, surprised as he prepared to fire when he opened the flaps of his beam weapon, "Veartra! What is that thing?" he shouted to her. She looked up to see it was Terrador, smiling in relief to finally see an ally, "Don't fire Tesk! It's the green Dragon, err…what's his name…Terrador! Down here!"

The elder Guardian's attention was caught as soon as he heard Veartra's cries and spotting the Locust from high above. With caution in case the Apes were preparing to ambush them, he lowered down to just above medium building height.

"That machine is very hard to miss. At least your still among us Miss Mevlos but who might be controlling this mechanical beast?" he politely asked, looking around their area of conversation.

"It's Tesk sire" he spoke through the megaphone. Terrador raised a brow at first, "Who?".

"Hrrmm…the one who shot the Arbiter with a Needler by accident?" he got kind of annoyed that Terrador couldn't recognize that it was him. Raskar understood why though, being mixed up with Tetrestu and Sarvasu does confuse people at times.

"Ah yes, one of the younger ones, forgive me for the misunderstanding. Veartra, Tesk, you must get to the Infirmary, Apes are swarming all over the tent and the cheetahs won't hold on for long against those flying vessels supporting those buffoons. Darst and the Hunters are heading there too as we speak" he updated them about the situation but Veartra had the clue that something was going on over by that area. A question suddenly popped in her head that concerned Ventor.

"What about Captain Odesa? Where's he at?" she looked up at the Dragon's sage green head. Tesk also intervened for a minute, "Yeah and what about Sarv and Tet? And where's the other 2 big Dragons at, I thought there were 3 of you" he wondered where Volteer and Cyril were in the midst of all this chaos.

"Cyril and Volteer are assisting people who aren't able to defend themselves to get to the southern side of Warfang. It's the only safe haven for them while we take care of our enemies here. If I know those two, they're probably keeping the civilians protected, they enjoy that role in conflict" Terrador explained their absence carefully, making absolute clear sense to the young elite.

"That's why they're ironically called Guardians I guess" he looked down at his controls.

"To your question Veartra, I have no clue on the whereabouts of your Sangheili comrades, all the knowledge I know is that Darst and possibly Thel are heading towards there. Right now though, they need your help Tesk, that machine might just stop the Apes completely" Terrador decided to land gently on the cobblestones behind the Locust, wasting a bit too much energy luring a dropship far away from the actual battle.

He breathed in large quantities to quickly regain what he lost but not before Veartra gave her worry to the Earth Guardian, "Are you okay? You're hurt badly…" she could see the third-degree-burns on Terrador's front left leg. The Brutes were able to land a few hits on him before taking them down under the cover of darkness.

"These are mere scratches compared to what the Dark forces did to me during the Dragon War my dear, go on now, get to the Infirmary before Clin loses everything, he would be a real ghost that should haunt me for eternity if it was lost" He curved his head around in the direction of the Infirmary.

As Tesk's Locust passed by them both, Veartra wanted to learn of Terrador's next move, looking straight at him, "I need to know the status of our civilians, Volteer and Cyril will need help controlling the crowd" whilst he told Veartra straight up what he's going to do now, gunfire could be heard in the distance. It was chilling to think what the Apes are doing to the defenders right now.

"Can't they handle a few moles themselves? We need you" she walked right up to him under his wind blowing wings, resisting the force of it.

"Once the Apes have been completely wiped out and the Jiralhanae start to arrive, there chaos within the shelter. Those two won't be able to control the mole population unless they had to do something drastic, and that cannot be an option. Please, go and save the Infirmary, now!" his thunderous voice was sent into the distance as he took off towards the southern city towers, having to sadly leave them up to fighting an entire Ape battalion. He knew though that others will come to stop the barbaric beasts from tearing up Clin's tent.

Veartra watched in awe as Terrador flew in the distance but was suddenly and quite rudely interrupted by Tesk, urging her to come along, "There's no time to waste now, you heard what that Dragon said, time to kick some monkey butt!"

Before going with Tesk to their objective, Veartra took one last stare at Terrador flying away. Even with the Locust, her mind still said that they need him and the other two Guardians to fight this battle. If the Brutes have all but one thing, they don't have flying reptile that breathe fire and other elements and that could be a tide turner from a tactical standpoint. Nevertheless, Mevlos followed close behind the Locust.

At the Infirmary, a blockade of furniture, dumpsters and useless metal formed a circle around the Tent to give the Cheetahs and Moles decent enough cover from the Ape's relentless advance. They fought with all their might as some of those Moles were outside blockade and using building cover and roofs to protect themselves.

Unfortunately though, even if the Apes were moving at a very slow pace, they were absorbing a few arrows hits to their arms, legs and even their chests. Most of them wore strange clan masks which effectively deflected any sort of non plasma weapon. Their tactics were beyond barbaric, getting up close to Moles and charging in, destroying stone walls and bricks to try and get to their enemies.

Some were armed with Jiralhanae Spikers and Brute shots but others were carrying giant crossbows as well as wrist bows like the Moles. It seems that Magnaruckus came quite prepared for Wraul's forces.

Behind the 'uniquely created' wall, the Cheetahs soon became desperate. Some of their comrades who carried Sangheili firearms were killed during the first few minutes of the invasion and as of right now, the only cats who knew how to use them were the only ones left. Low ranked Moles poked their heads out to see approaching monkeys.

"They just keep coming sire!" a young Mole called out to his field captain.

"We must hold out, the good doctor Clin doesn't like parasite monkey bags entering his tent" he shoved his crossbow through a hole within the barricade and shot an arrow towards a wrist bows wielding Ape, getting impaled in the gut and letting loose a violent roar, falling back into an alleyway.

"Well those 'parasite monkey bags' are getting too damn close to the tent, left flank has been completely obliterated by that hovering menace!" a Cheetah in blue pointed out a Phantom dropship that was circling around.

That Phantom's left plasma gunner, a Brute, started opening fire onto the defenders inside the barricade, shooting and killing that Cheetah who died in such agonizing pain from multiple chest shots. The cat next to him ran backwards, randomly firing a Carbine attempting to kill that Brute. All it resulted in was horrible aim and accuracy. It eventually grabbed the Brute's attention and shredded the Cheetah to pieces.

"Just like shooting Unggoy on a Human hunt, he he he" he chuckled cheerfully. The Moles had no defense against a Phantom and now it seemed their time was at an end.

Hunter, who in horror, watched two of his comrades' die before him. He just couldn't take anymore of this bloodshed, watching so many friends and allies be torn to pieces by the enemy's assault. Watching the Moles slowly fall back with Apes getting closer to them, the yellow cloaked cat boldly vaulted over the barricade and readied his bow.

"Hold on my friends, I'm coming!" taking out an arrow from his quiver and aimed it at the closest Ape, which was about to crush a tripped over Mole with his bare left foot.

With dire timing and great precision, he launched the arrow from his bow at that Ape's right eye, going through the mask's eye gap. The Ape howled as the reality of agonizing blindness and torturing pain skewered through his bulbous head, dropping to his knees to desperately get the arrow out, but it only managed to gouge more blood out of the socket. Taking his chances, that Mole who was about to become a pancake ran off to the rest of his group who took shelter inside a building.

"Here kitty kitty kitty, I have a present for you" 3 closing Apes that had Gravity hammers had sighted their eyes on Hunter. Their movement, though slow as it were, was truly terrifying to watch from Hunter's perspective. He walked backwards in order to avoid a clash with them that would've easily resulted his demise.

As they continued to lumber towards him, their attention was caught by the Moles and Cheetahs, hiding within the Tent barricade and building who fired arrows at them. Some were landing into the Apes' arms and backsides, receiving a decent amount of hurt.

"Hunter we have them pinned down, go for it!" a blue furred Cheetah called out to his comrade, issuing an attack of the disabled Apes.

Reluctantly, though needed, Hunter was ready to stretch his archery skill and decided to pull 3 arrows from the quiver and put them together onto the bow. Lining both the Apes and the arrows up with no time to waste, he lets go of the sharp projectiles and all at once, the exposed craniums at the apex of these Apes were pierced by Hunter's talents with a bow. They died moaning to the ground, but not after feeling such pain inside their brains.

"That was a little too close" he stared at the bloodied Apes, filled with a large amount of arrows.

Turning his attention towards the carnage around him, he watched a mole fight one on one with an Ape using swords. The little brown furball was able to hold his own for some time, but another pack member of the Apes decided to dishonorably interrupt their fight, grabbing the Mole's left arm, pulling him around to take a dagger to his heart.

"AGH! You…bast-" the dagger was taken out and the Mole died quickly, dropping to the ground. A group of 3 Moles ran by in horror as an Ape chased them down with a hammer.

"APE SMASH!" the brutal monkey dropped the gravity onto them, crushing one whilst the other 2 were sent flying by the destructive force. They head on smacked into a wall, falling to their ground as lifeless bodies.

"This is getting out of hand. Where is everyone else?" Hunter questioned himself about the location of Spyro and the many others. Cheetahs and Moles can't handle this situation by themselves, especially with the support of 2 Phantoms.

The Phantom that had its gunner shoot every warrior he could spot suddenly took notice of Hunter, calling out to his pilot, "Cat by the large rectangle building, get me closer!" the Brute called out.

It started to hover towards the yellow Cheetah. He spotted the immanent danger and panicked within a second as the gunner stared right into his eyes, not to mention that grinning smile.

"Oh that's not friendly!" Hunter ran for dear life as the gunner started raining plasma on him. He could easily hear the whistling of hot burning bolts miss his figure, but the gunner learned from his misfiring and used it to predict Hunter's movements.

He ran by the barricade, as some of the defenders became bystanders in shock, and ran onto the open street, hoping someone would intercept the dropship. Bolts continued to rain on Hunter without no hesitation of stopping, the Brute laughed at his dismay, knowing he'll eventually be able to obtain a few hits soon enough.

And soon enough it would be. Two bolts managed to land and burn Hunter's back right leg, disabling him and making him trip. He groaned as the burns started singing his fur and under-skin, rolling around to avoid more incoming fire. He crawled under wooden veranda from a household to keep himself alive for just a few more seconds, but the Brute wasn't finished shooting yet.

"This is it kitty cat, time to meet the rest of your kind!" the Brute couldn't help but laugh at the advantage he had, breaking through the last parts of the veranda.

Out of no where though, as if an angel was watching upon Hunter, Spyro landed and clawed onto the Brute gunner's backside, having enough strength roll over in mid-air and pull the Jiralhanae off his plasma cannon. The startled and eye widened Brute screamed as his moment of triumph turned into his own death as he fell to the cobblestone ground.

Hunter watched the Brute face first slam into the ground, feeling it shake a bit. He looked up to see Spyro standing on the wing part of the Phantom, seeing the driver in the cockpit. He started turning when wanted to find where the screaming came from.

"Pack brother, is everything ok back th-…FREAK FLYER!" he roared as the purple Dragon stared right at him. He decided to try and attack, getting out of the seat, but Spyro breathed a heavy dose of flames at his enemy, burning the Brute pilot and the controls inside which started creating the 'abandon dropship' alarm.

Knowing that sound was the time to hop off the Phantom, Spyro took off from the side backed away from the crashing ship, which smashed into the open cobblestone ground, creating a bang large enough for everyone near the tent to hear.

He watched it burn, the metallic coffin that he, a savior, created for the Brutes. He looked down to see what the Brute gunner from shooting at from before. To his surprise and relief, Hunter crawled out from under the damaged veranda. To see if his old friend was in good condition, he landed just before Hunter's face.

"Hunter, you've been holding out for a fare while" the purple dragon smiled to see his Cheetah friend still among the living.

"It's good to see you old friend, I've pulled my own weight for a few attacks, but I'm afraid that last one almost took down. My legs…they're not able to carry me any farther" Hunter grabbed and brought his legs around, showing the burns he had received from the Phantom's gunner.

It hurt his heart to see Hunter in such a shape. For as good as the Cheetah was, he wasn't immortal. He took on wounds like anyone else would, and this battle just about claimed his life.

"We've got to get you to Clin, maybe he can fix you. I'm not leaving you for some annoying Apes to come around and murder you" he was about move under Hunter to help him move, but right now wasn't the time for the doctor.

"I greatly appreciate your help Spyro, but can't you help notice the Infirmary is in a bit of a jam?" They both looked over to the Tent to see its defenses about to be overwhelmed, "Where's everyone else? Are they taking the toll like we are here?"

"Cynder was with me a minute ago, I thought she was still…c'mon, let me get you to that alleyway at the very least" with that said and having some worry of the Dragoness's whereabouts, Spyro quickly moved Hunter in between an alleyway. The one thing that was always on his mind is to ensure safety for his friends, and that list of friends included Hunter.

With the defenses almost annihilated, the second Phantom decided to drop in its cargo that it's been carrying for quite a while. A Brute Chopper that was ready to unleash a torrent of death and destruction.

"Take down that tent brother, then those medical geeks won't be able to heal as many people for the coming of Magnaruckus's attack!" the cockpit Brute shouted out to his comrade in the vehicle.

Slowly but surely, the dropship lowered itself enough, detaching the Chopper for its carving of the Tent.

"That thing looks very menacing from here!" Clin shouted out to his people that were holding off the Ape attackers. They all stared at the coming Chopper, readying its shredding wheels for flattening.

"Hrrr…what the…" the Brute suddenly stopped to see an orange object in front of him, carrying a Fuel Rod Cannon.

"Hi there Brute, how're you tonight?" Yapflop smiled playfully, aiming his gun at the vehicle. All the Jiralhanae did was laugh at this…this threat.

"A Grunt, that's what they have to send against the vehicle that will annihilate their medical supplies? Ha ha ha ha! What're you gonna do with that you little morsal, shoot me? Ha ha ha!" he mocked Yapflop for everything he was. A little Unggoy, weak and small. Yapflop was slowly irritated by the Brute's ignorance. He was a very angry Grunt at that moment…

**I wanted to get this up very quickly recently because a few days ago, we had 3 Tornadoes hit near the city of Hobart, which is the first time Twisters have ever been seen in the area. I haven't been affected here, but they did destroy a couple of power lines so I wanted to get this out quickly. I'll see you guys later, hope you enjoyed the chapter**


	60. The Downfall of the Apes

**Most likely the biggest chapter I've made so far, so I hope you guys enjoy. Please review as this took a hefty amount of time to do, especially since my grade 10 formal is over and I still have stuff to do**

Yapflop's face shown signs of pure anger and irritation as all he did was play nice with the Jiralhanae driving the Chopper. All the beast did was smile and chuckled at Yapflop's small size and strength able to carry that Fuel Rod Cannon and aim it towards his vehicle. Jabjab rushed in and watched from behind the large motorbike like machine, noticing his best friend was soon to become a victim of its menacing teeth like wheels at the front.

"Yapflop! Get out of the way, that thing will crush you!" he cried out to the orange Unggoy, but he didn't budge one bit. He only stood there with a straight up furious face expression.

"Well little servant of the Sangheili, if you want to die a painful and foolish death then so be it. Afterwards, I'll run down the green one behind me, and then I'll slaughter everyone else until my dinner table is full of meat. How does that sound whelpling?" the Brute readied the Chopper's engine as he prepared to crush Yapflop with it.

Yapflop growled, though innocently looking it was, it wasn't the kind of cute growl as he loaded five Fuel rods into his cannon. He aimed it right at the steel metal Chopper that stared death in the face. Before Yapflop did anything with his next move, he murmured to himself that concerned what this Brute said to him.

"I try to be nice to you and you just throw insults back at my face. You make fun of my size and strength and then you threaten to kill me, the elites, the dragons and everyone else around me, but you also threaten to kill Jabjab?...You Brutes…are nothing…" he started pulling the trigger with his claw like fingers and shouted in the highest pitched but clearest voice possible for a Grunt, "BUT BIG…GIANT…BULLIES!".

With the last words he said, he fired a rod as when saying each of those last 3 words, totalling 3 Fuel rods launched at the Chopper, sending it flying over Jabjab's head with metal crunching and the engine core rumbling like an earthquake. The Fuel Rod Cannon proved its worth as an anti-vehicle launcher, almost completely destroying the Brute's Chopper whilst sending it flying into a building behind the green Grunt.

The Jiralhanae roared in surprise as he clamped onto the controls, trying to stay in the vehicle while it was still heavily damaged. To his dismay though, when his Chopper crashed into the wall, he fell straight out of its seat. Minor bruising and bleeding caused him to try to get back up, groaning as he did, but Jabjab lifted his Needler up and shot the Brute multiple times in the neck. All that happened then was a fire starting within the Chopper and its dead owner lying next to it.

Jabjab looked back at his Grunt buddy with enthusiasm, seeing that they're teamwork might just get them through battles like this than most Unggoy would naturally come out of. Yapflop simply had glee with a smile.

"They'll need to think twice before messing with us Grunts" Jabjab walked up to the orange Grunt that still was staring at the Chopper wreckage.

"Hold on, I'm not done yet" Yapflop told Jabjab to hold off talking with him for a few seconds as he returned fire with two more Fuel rods onto the Chopper, resulting in its total destruction with a large fiery explosion. Jabjab's eyes widened up as he watched Yapflop totally annihilate what's left of the vehicle. Pieces flew everywhere, barely missing the two Grunts and not to mention that the explosion also left a burning Brute body, causing a very foul smell that even Yapflop could sniff up.

"Eww, that reeks more than methane" Yapflop had already gotten too used to the fresh air that he breathed upon the Dragon's very own planet. Jabjab looked back at him with raised brow on his face.

"Don't you think that was a little bit overkill?" Jabjab commented, backing away from the fire and raising a brow at the same exact time. Yapflop only snorted his nostrils and loaded another set of fuel rods into his Cannon.

He opened his mouth to say only a few words to his best friend, "Yep, and overkills are awesome". Yapflop passed by Jabjab who still stared at the Chopper's destruction, as he just shrugged his shoulders and turned to follow his orange comrade.

4 Apes that were closing in on the tent suddenly turned around when they heard the Chopper's explosion, seeing the two Grunts turn around and walk towards their enemies attack force. A wrist bow baboon, roaring out to others of his kind, drew their attention to mark their next foes. Seeing them as a next set of cannon fodder, the Ape raised his arm and effortlessly pulled on his right hand, causing the mechanism of his bow to fire its arrow at the Unggoy.

Yapflop shouted "AH!" which made him jump to his right to avoid the attack whilst Jabjab at the same time ducked and ran towards a building corner for cover. The 3 other Apes raised their weapons and started suppressing the two Grunts, making Yapflop jump and duck around as he narrowly avoids spikes galore.

"Okay now this is very…VERY BAD!" Jabjab gulped his saliva down in panic. He tried to curve his head around the corner but ducks back in as soon as Spiker shots whizzed by, yelping as it happened.

"STOP MAKING ME DANCE STUPIDM MONKEYS! AHHH!" shots were hitting around Yapflop's feet, trying to avoid imminent death that the humoured Apes enjoyed.

The Ape behind the first 3 in front of him chuckled watching Yapflop's torturing amusement but all of a sudden, that smile faded as gasped in sudden pain as felt the back of his neck get cleanly sliced, creating a clear cut across it with the salty liquid spraying out. 2 of them turned to see their brother drop dead to the ground, looking up to their right as Cynder was spotted in their sights. She flew by and used her tail blade to rip the back of the Ape's neck.

"The traitor is here! Focus our attack on her! She needs to die a slow and greatly painful death!" Another pointed his weapon to the skies. His small rally cry got some of the attacker's attention, taking their attack towards the dragoness and away from the Infirmary. This gave the defenders some breathing room to try regrouping and counterattacking, even if they are weakened to the core.

Some Apes started firing into the air in an attempt to strike a few hits on her, but the distance for their Spikers and arrows were was too ineffective to even hurt Cyn. Any stray projectiles that did hit her merely bounced off her very protective armor. She waited for the right moment to strike once more, wisely knowing the fact that these beasts still wanted revenge for her betrayal during Malefor's reign of terror. She needed the rest of her group to intervene.

An enemy at the very front of their pack, the one who rally called the other Apes, turned around and the saw the Arbiter charging head on towards him. Having barely any time to react, he could only try to aim his wrist bow at Thel, but with one fatal horizontal swipe of his new black coloured energy sword, it chopped off the arm. This Ape's eyes widened in horror as he roared with only one arm, the other rolled around the ground.

"Now Moles, attack these beasts. Show them your display of valour and courage as we overrun their numbers!" Vadam shoved the crying Ape out of his way, allowing the Blacksmith Moles attack their most hated and most widely known enemy during their fight against the dark forces. They cried their

"For Warfang!" the lead blacksmith Mole shouted

"Attack while the enemy is weak, push them back!" a yellow hooded Cheetah yelled to the rest of the Infirmary defenders, taking their chances by coming out of their defence hold ups and issued a full scale attack against the Apes that are soon to be defending for their lives.

As both forces clash with their swords, the battle that used ranged former Covenant weapons was now dominated by old ancient but very sharp melee weapons of this world. The fighting soon became more bloody and fierce, Moles took on the stronger and taller Apes with great numbers, but the Cheetahs used skill and reflex to predict the baboons' movements, moving into attack whenever they got the chance.

Blades clashed and arrows flew by, hitting or missing their aimed targets depending on the faction who fired them. A sea shouting and roaring flooded the streets in a blaze of violence and destruction, trying to beat out and eliminate each other quickly but painfully as possible.

Among the chaos, the Grunts came out of cover and supported their Warfang allies, shooting whatever Ape that attempted to kill the Moles and Cheetahs. They could only help a few at a time though with amassed enemies all around.

"THIS IS CRAZY!" Jabjab shouted as he sprayed the Needler in every direction with endless hit results, just no super combination as conclusions.

"I'M LOVIN' IT!" Yapflop bounced back each time he fired his massive cannon. Apes were being demolished in a green explosion of glory each rod that impacts flesh, cobblestone or building.

Arbiter, the commander of his resistance and the most prestigious former Covenant warrior fought off the Apes one by one, taking them swiftly and quickly. He aimed his Carbine in directions where the Apes charged at him with their blades and hammers, precisely taking them out with quick reflex. 1, 2, 3, 4 go down as they come from every direction possible. Being in the middle of this fight zone, he was the biggest target.

"Why Mag? You're just sending these rogue creatures to use as cannon fodder. Your dooming another race to extinction and these baboons don't even know it…that being said, it doesn't mean I'm not allowed to defend myself" Vadam fired 5 radioactive ballistic ordinance at a single hammer wielding Ape, severing his legs as to put him down for a painful disable.

Noticing the cartridge for his rifle was depleted, he hauled the rifle over his shoulder and onto two holders that resided on his backside, Arbiter switched over for the Brute shot. He aimed it at his previous target and let off one grenade, hearing a searing scream as it splashed into the Ape's face. It merely dropped on its backside after receiving such a powerful blow.

2 'angry as a Gravemind' Apes smacked their chests with their fists and they raised their very own Brute shots. Thel turned his head around immediately, widening in surprise as what they did within the next second, they unleashed a torrent of grenades, 6 each.

Arbiter jumped to his right, out of the way and narrowly avoiding 10 of the projectiles that were launched but he was hit and forced back by the remaining 2. He groaned as he was launched back by the small explosives, both managing to do some minor damage to his armor. They, more or less, were used to weaken him.

He slowly pushed his backside of the cobblestones, looking down at his arms. He noticed his arm protection was pretty damaged from the blasts as did his chest, which received the fragment damage, leaving small black scars. Looking at the bright side of things, his own skin wasn't affected.

The force of the explosions made him groan even more. It's as if a Ghost just rammed into him. Looking to the front of his own being, he watched the two Apes approached him with a bloodlust in each of their eyes. With a quick reaction, Thel's eyes opened up and immediately looked around him for his Brute shot. He curved his head around and noticed it was behind him. The explosions must've blown it away from his hands when they hit.

As the Apes drew closer, loading in another belt of grenades into their launchers, Thel rushed to his weapon, scurrying along the ground and grabbing the Brute shot by its positioned handle. He turned around as well as placing his left hand near the very front of the gun then fired 2 grenades out of its barrel.

Their hands pulled the levers on their Brute shots to cock in their next barrage of grenades, but the Apes suddenly realized projectiles coming straight towards them. As a defensive reaction, they brought their shoulders in front of them, their Brutes shots acted as a shield from the incoming grenades.

The 'nades hit their Brute shots, blowing them out of their hairy hands and shocking the Apes with surprise as they watched their weapons fall to the ground in smoke. They looked back to Thel to see him fire his next 3 grenades at them, which one tried to defend himself again with his arms whilst his brother effortlessly used his left fist and whacked it aside, sending the 'nade into the ground and exploding upon impact. The blast radius had minimal effect. The last 2 projectiles hit dead on into the Ape's arms, creating immense pain for him, but only his skin and fur took on most of the brunt.

Arbiter, grinding his teeth side to side, attempted to launch even more attacks from his Brute shot. He heard the clicking of the trigger. It was the obvious signal of the lack of ammunition, his eyes pointed directly at his weapon in panic. He pulled over his next and last belt of Brute shot ammunition but it was going to be too late as both Apes charged at him, roaring at their other worldly enemy.

As he loaded in the belt of grenades, Thel forced it in as hard as he could but unfortunately, as two of the munitions were sent in, the third got jammed. He pushed as hard as he could but he gave up, knowing any more force would automatically detonate them within his hands.

He threw away the Shot and turned to his enemy who were 5 seconds away from getting him. He thought to himself that it would be too late with the sword by the time he drew it. He simply kept back away and hoped for someone to see his peril.

Just half a second before they both pounced onto him, a small scaly figure landed in front of them, sending up dust and momentarily blinding them. Thel's eyes widened in surprise, the being's miraculous arrival gave him the time to get back up.

The Apes growled and waved their bulking arms around to clear the dust up and find out what stopped them from tearing Arbiter's limbs off.

"Argh! The Traitor of our master has returned!" One of them shouted and clenched his fists with rage, staring at the silver armoured Dragoness; their formerly most powerful ally now their most dangerous enemy known as Cynder.

Her teeth were clearly exposed, white and glistening with shine and sharpness, strong enough to shred meat and bone. Her feral hissing and growling made the two Apes slowly walk backwards as she positioned her body like a roadblock, defending her groggy Sangheili brother as he starts to recover and reorganise himself.

"You know how to look out for someone in a bit of peril, don't you?" he looked down to Cynder with a sigh of relief. Looking back, she noticed his eyes seem all calm now seeing her in front of him. It must've meant he was glad she was still one piece.

Her ravenous look receded for a couple of moments to talk to Thel properly, "I'm not going to sit by and let you fight off every single one of them Thel, you're not in good health yourself. That chest of yours, as I recall, has only been recently sewn up? Are you sure you can lead the Moles as well as everyone else?" she shown concern towards him. Cynder was afraid that Vadam would wreck his own well-being with a moderately busted up chest, and Clin did warn him about this state of the injury and needed more time to heal up.

A slight hint of irritation welled up in him, but she was right as Arbiter held his chest in with his right hand, feeling strong senses of pain within his nervous system, to the extent, his heavy breathing didn't help either.

He shook his head, ridding of the concern, "I'm well enough to fight, I promised to aid in this battle and command these people, so I'm not throwing this opportunity away because a bloody Brute stomped on me back on the Shadow of Intent" withdrawing him arms back at his side, he narrowed his eyes down at the dragoness, revealing the amount of annoyance that she has created towards him. She was only trying to warn him.

"I'm sorry but I need to keep an eye in case that gets any worse. I thought you were done for when those explosives hit you" She continued to look back at him with those eyes. Those emerald eyes made Thel feel fuzzy inside, knowing she cares for him and that's only what she's trying to do, and he can't take that away from her without hurting her feelings.

"Ok…if that's all you're doing then that's fine by me…just don't pressure me out of this. I need to redeem myself after leading the Shadow of Intent into her destruction. Leading the Moles and all the rest will put me at ease for the loss of the ship and crew…you must understand that I need to fight" he took out the handle of his blade, continuing to look down at Cynder whilst he did.

She sighed, lowering her head near the cobblestones, "I understand but…I only warned you because I don't want to lose you. I would die inside if that happened…remember those many hours ago?" she looked back to the Apes that were cautious and aware of Cynder's abilities, slowly drawing their crude metal swords out to combat her. She slithered her scythe tail blade and pointed towards them.

Arbiter lowered his head down and thought about what she said. Seeing the stitches behind his armor, still holding all of it in together, he knew that the black dragoness only wanted him to be safe so she can still be with him. That explained why she was concerned about his injury and him leading their resistance.

He smiled, lifting up the lines between his mandibles, and assured her, "There's no need to worry Cynder. When the sun rises, Clin said he'd be able to take these stitches out considering I still heal quicker than the casual Mole" he walked aside next to her, re-organising her position into a more stalk like action, as if she was about to pounce on her prey, in this case being the Apes.

That assurance gave Cyn the uplifting confidence she needed. Relief blew through her body and so she turned full attention to the 2 Apes in front of them, who were about to retaliate in a moment's notice. As the fighting happened all around them, the Moles continued to fight off their invaders. Eventually, on the rooftops residing near the Infirmary, Prowlus and all the other Cheetahs of his group carrying Covenant weaponry and bows with arrows as slowly stepped towards the edges of the buildings they stood upon, whether it was the square/rectangular buildings or one of the more larger, roof circular structures, they aimed all of their weapons at their Ape enemies down below.

"Aim…avoid hitting the Moles…and…" Prowlus, holding a Concussion rifle with only his left hand, had his right one raised high. He was signalling his group to ready their weapons for a surprise attack on Apes.

Hunter watched from the alleyway, still with Spyro and moderately wounded from the Phantom's plasma cannon. He spotted Prowlus on the rooftops in which he estimated when he would say the word that would order all the Cheetahs to attack at once.

At the right moment, and as the same time as Prowlus dropped his right arm down, Hunter spoke the word; "Fire"…

"Fire!" Prowlus said at the exact same time. The Apes who were not directly into the combat with the Moles or the Blacksmith Moles, looked around them and noticed they were surrounded by their feline enemies. The Apes were in the centre of a kill zone, aimed by bows, Carbines, Plasma rifles and Plasma pistols.

The reign of fire descended into the Infirmary's courtyard, plasma and arrows was sprayed everywhere, hitting their injuries and sending them into total suppression and assault. The unlucky Apes that were targeted by multiple weapons at were completely gunned down, falling to the ground groaning with the last thoughts of plasma burns and arrows stabbing their bodies.

Their assault suddenly turned into a defence for their lives as they slowly started retreating backwards away from the Infirmary. Prowlus' counterattack has successfully saved Clin's tent from total destruction, with the aid of Jabjab and Yapflop's assistance in destroying the Brute Chopper.

"GARGH! FALL BACK TOWARDS DROPSHIPS! TOO MANY OF THEM!" An Ape held his Gravity Hammer with only his right arm, pointing it towards the other Phantom that has assisted their assault as well as the one that hangs high in the air, hoping that they would provide cover for their retreat.

The Moles and Cheetahs that had fought off and survived the Ape's attacks in defence of the Tent cheered and shouted as Apes started pulling back towards troop transports. The next that happened though shocked all the defenders into a state of fear.

The lowest hanging Phantom moved in to neutralize some of the Cheetahs on the rooftops, in the effort to destroy this counterattack. A Brute on a Plasma Cannon turned and pointed the turret at his enemy as did the front mounted turret of the dropship. The small group of cats that were on a rounded rooftop had widened eyes as the Phantom flew in front of them, getting a closer to death look of these Covenant machines.

The heavy bolts began unleashing its barrage, completely destroying the rooftop in heavy dust and rubble. The Cheetahs screeched as they were shot off the building to be sent falling to their demise.

"Chief, that thing just killed Travos and the others of his group!" a Cheetah holding a bow and arrow and wearing a blue hood called out to Prowlus, seeing that they had no weapon that would be able to take down the Phantom.

Prowlus watched as it continued to massacre the cats, rooftop by rooftop, watching villagers of Avalar perish in storms of dust as plasma bombarded each building the dropship attacked. 5 buildings rooftops have been purged of their existence, along with more of the village's population.

Before it was able to get to the 6th one, 2 Assault beams were charged by large metallic arms, firing devastating beams of green destruction, being sent directly at the Phantom. They both hit its other side, completely unaware of this attack; the Brute pilot of the Phantom looked behind him and noticed the left side doors were completely disintegrated, leaving melted armor and ash, with a completely surprised Brute gunner just being in front of it.

The pilot turned his dark purple flying vehicle around to find what decided to attack his Phantom. To his horror, it was the Hunter 1 and its smaller brother Hunter 2, both aside with Darst who walked in-between them both to see Apes falling back. They came through an alleyway that, surprisingly, was able to fit Lekgolo through.

"Where do you think you're going you baboons" he raised his Concussion rifle and opened fire on the Apes falling back, fatally injuring 1 of them by blowing his right arm off and making another fall onto the ground and smacking his face.

Angered that his Phantom was damaged by worms, he called off his attack on the roof firing Cheetahs, saving Prowlus and the rest of his warriors plus bringing the dropship over to the Hunter's terms. As this Brute pilot did though, he noticed 3 Sangheili warriors running by the Lekgolos with moderately good weapons, one holding a Plasma Launcher.

"Tet, cut those Apes off from their retreat, Sarvasu you're going to help me cut down these hairy beasts one by one. Show them the true Sangheili spirit and send them to their final resting place!" Ventor drew his sword, ordering his squad to their precise objectives and letting Tetrestu go and try to completely halt their retreat by firing plasma projectiles in their wake.

"So it's closer quarters combat Captain?" Savarsu drew his own sword, hauling his Carbine onto his backside.

"Until I lose my other hand Sarvasu…bit that'll have to be a bit of a wait" Ventor lashed into the retreat and caught one Ape with his guard, cleanly cutting his right arm off and impaling him in his back through to the chest. Sarvasu nodded his head and followed Ventor's lead, tripping an Ape to push the searing blade into his head.

"Our weapons won't be able to kill those worm colonies, their armor is made from the same materials as an Assault Carrier" the Brute gunner called out to his pilot, knowing there wasn't much chance their Phantom wasn't going to survive another attack from the Hunters.

"Doesn't mean I can't try" the pilot exposed his teeth with rage as a reaction to staring at the armoured worms. The forward gun aimed down at them and fired numerous shots in an attempt to take them down.

Hunter 1 bellowed to Hunter 2, signalling both to raise their heavy assault shields and strafe around the Phantom's hovering position, splitting up to flank the machine. The crimson bolts of plasma barely affected their shields, simply impacting and exploding, but nonetheless, the shields simply obtained a heavy dose of paint loss and burnt marks.

Hunter 1's tactic seems to be working as the front cannon seem to only be shooting him, whilst Hunter 2 was still creeping around behind its back. The gunner though sees Hunter 2's little sneaking though, firing his plasma cannon whilst cursing his pilot for not seeing through this trick.

"Are you an idiot? The other's trying to get around behind us!" he continued to send barrages of bolts from his turret, but Hunter 2 simply shook it off and continued to strafe around the Jiralhanae.

When the pilot finally got around seeing that his gunner was still firing at Hunter 2, he had no choice but to move out of the zone, flying out of the Hunters tactical strafing and hover a little higher above them. This though gave the Lekgolo a chance to strike, charging their beams and firing at the Phantom at the same time.

Hunter 1's beam missed by inches as the Phantom evaded it, but Hunter 2's attack had made contact, melting and destroying the roofing of the Brute's transport.

"WHY DIDN'T YOU DODGE?!" the gunner called out to him.

"I COULD ONLY DODGE ONE OF THEM YOU FOOL!" his brother cursed right back at him for his false accusations.

The Hunters looked behind each other to see Apes gathering around them, with a huge bloodlust to kill the worms once and for all. Hunter 1 and 2 backed up next to each other and went into their offensive stance, hunching their backsides, preparing to fight off the oversized monkeys. Their fleshy worm backs were covered by each other own backside, a little strategy they learned when other Lekgolos have died due the gaps in their armor.

The Apes roared as they attacked them both, but using their mass and size to their advantage, both of the tackled into the crowd of Apes like football players, pushing through them with little to no effort. The Apes weren't heavy enough to stop power of these behemoths. They crushed a few baboons under their feet that were stupid enough to try and stop them. When they slowly started stopping, Hunter 1 dropped its shield onto a fallen Ape, crushing the torso with so much force whilst Hunter 2 fired its Assault beam continuously to stop the charging Apes.

"CHARGE!" Jabjab called out as he to help the Elites and Hunters, spraying needle shards wherever he aimed.

"BANZAI! Uh…I mean, CHARGE!" Yapflop shouted too, running and gunning with his Fuel Rod Cannon.

The 2 Apes in front of Thel and Cynder turned their heads around to see the chaos that was revealing behind them. Apes were cut off and suppressed by Tet's Plasma Launcher, Lekgolo fought as a two worm colony army and Sangheili plus Unggoy hunted down and killed their brothers to thin out their numbers. Moles and Cheetahs continued to attack and fight their mortal enemies, they weren't stopping until the last baboon is dead.

"Now!" Thel shouted to Cynder as they synced their attacks at the same time, running at their enemies, who turned back to them.

The black/dark Energy sword was a sight to behold as it was relinquished from the handle that Vadam was holding. He plunged it into the Ape that stood bewildered, impaling him into his chest and lifting him into the air whilst Cynder bit down the other Ape's neck to cut off his breathing and wreck his windpipe. Salty blood filled her mouth as she also screwed her tail blade into his stomach for maximum damage.

As burnt ash left the sword's surrounding plasma area, Vadam withdrew his blade from the chest and threw the corpse away and searched for the next enemy. Cynder made the Ape fall onto his backside and slowly die from her feral attack, spitting out the tainted flesh of his being. She licked her chops to clean off all the red liquid and followed Thel's lead into the fight.

Side by side, together as a team, Thel and Cynder, 2 Arbiters of their kind, ran through the Ape hordes, slashing them with an Energy sword, using the powerful elements of Shadow, Poison and Fear to thin out the groups whilst killing some off.

An Ape tried to stab Vadam with his blade, but Cynder used her body to make the Ape trip over, rolling along the cobblestone ground, into Thel's own melee weapon. The blade sword went straight through him and instantly killing the beast. It only took one second to push him off the blade and follow Cynder's lead, seeing another enemy about to fire a Spiker at her in close vicinity. He took and raised his plasma rifle and fired at him, shooting his hand off and causing him to roar in pain. Cynder, without stopping, used her right forearm claws to swipe and gouge his eyes out and finishing him off with a blaze of powerful and deadly Shadow fire.

Spyro watched the carnage from a distance, turning an injured Hunter with a seemingly desperate facial expression, "I have to get into that fight Hunter. Can you sit here and be safe without me?" he asked his Cheetah comrade with soft eyes.

Hunter simply nodded nudged his head forward, "Go do what you have to do Spyro, they must casted away from this city for good. I should be ok for now, I give you my word that I won't go anywhere…not that I can anyways" he looked at his plasma burnt leg, knowing it's going to take more than just a few creams to get rid of these.

"Ok, I'll be back soon to get you help. I just they're ok" Spyro swiftly turned around and took off into the air, desiring to help all the others that are risking their lives to defend Clin's Infirmary. Hunter lifted up smirk, watching him fly over the fight.

It was a bloodbath down there. Flying somewhat 35 feet into the air, he could see that the Apes were losing due to the supreme number of defenders that have retaliated with extreme force. The Phantom was still trying to kill the Hunters, but every time a large bolt would head straight for them, either Hunter 1 or 2 would raise its shield to deflect the blast.

The Phantom wasn't the purple dragon's focus though. He made it his personal objective to find out who would be in the most trouble. That trouble suddenly appeared to Jabjab and Yapflop, who were backing each other up but the due to their small size, it for some reason makes them a bigger target than in most usual targets.

"One to your left! I mean your right! I mean, I mean!-" Yapflop exclaimed as he looked in Jabjab's direction as ranged Apes attempt to shoot them with Spikers and a few with plasma cannons.

"You're meant to say they're everywhere!" Jabjab finished his sentence whilst he panicked, continuing to spray the Needler in every direction he could possibly at with Apes firing Spikers. Though the projectiles are missing them, they're going to get shot sooner or later.

"Kill the little pipsqueaks in the name of Wraul and Magnaruckus!" a plasma cannon wielding Ape shouted, walking straight towards them. They both noticed him coming towards them, seeing his gun raised. There wouldn't be enough time for either of them to reload and fire in time.

As he pulled the trigger though, a large icicle looking rock smashed into his forehead and right through his skull. His mind was all scrambled and destroyed, making his nerves continue the last mission by firing the plasma cannon almost everywhere. 3 Apes were shot and gunned down because of it.

Spyro descended and landed with all 4 paws attached to the brain dead Ape, using his strength to push the baboon onto the ground, its final resting place. On the cobblestones, he blew fire at the Apes standing next to him who was unaware that he was right in between them. 4 more died from the fire.

"It's that dreaded purple one!" that same Ape who ordered the retreat spotted Spyro from a distance. It was his job to annihilate the one who murdered Gaul in cold blood, so he heaved the Gravity hammer towards the Dragon.

Yapflop and Jabjab were very thankful, running towards Spyro as they sided with him for protection, "Thank you so much, I thought we were done for, especially because of that turret guy since he had it in for us" Jabjab bowed to him.

"Are you two ok?" He needed to know if they were wounded, his face shown that he was concerned for their health. Yapflop checked first then Jabjab did, both seem relatively ok.

"Mentally, Very shaken. Physically, I'm all good" Jabjab smiled.

"My arms won't stop this thing they're doing" the same went for Yapflop, watching his arms tremble like an earthquake was inside of him.

"Ok, we need to find the others" Spyro turned to find anyone he specifically knows so he can see if they too were fine.

10 metres in distance, he could see a few Apes fighting Thel and Cynder who continued to use teamwork to their advantage, overcoming the odds.

They both called to each other when a threat was coming towards them, using fast reflexes and quick killing skill to cut the cumbersome Apes down one by one, "To your right!" shouted Thel as an Ape was about to strike Cyn.

She rolled around the Ape, avoiding the blade and flanking him. She jumped onto the Ape's backside when he was trying to pull his blade out of the ground, but she forced him away from it and threw him into a pack of his brothers that were approaching. She delivered a final shadow ball from her mouth, black electricity appeared around it going directly to the fallen pack of Apes, exploding on impact and annihilating the Apes in a blaze of smoke and darkness.

"Watch your left Thel!" she called out, just after he pulled his blade out of an Ape. He relinquished his left handed energy dagger and sent it through his enemy's under-chin. Knowing it mangled his brain, he pulled it straight back out and it immediately dropped dead on the cobblestones.

"Cynder, he's got a Spiker aimed at you!" Vadam cried out to her to notify about the Ape with a Jiralhanae Spiker, curving her head to see his sights aimed down at her.

He launched 7 Spikes at her; hot, sharp, orange shards left the Spiker's two barrels and pierced through the air towards her. With quick thinking and reaction, she ducked her body under the projectiles' path plus in doing so she released a gust of strong wind. Its strong force made the Ape fall onto his backside, accidently dropping his weapon which slid across the ground.

Taking this chance, Thel ran and jumped over Cynder as she tried to get up. He readied his sword for the final death blow against the fallen Ape, standing over him and shoving the sword down into him. Cynder couldn't exactly see where Vadam impaled the sword into her enemy, but it would be either the head or the chest she thought.

She watched as Thel took out the blade and looked over towards her, seeing all the Apes they were fighting had all been slain, lying dead on the ground all around behind the dragoness. He could see blood on her claws, on her tail blade, even on her mouth. There were some stains around her armor, her forearms, her helmet and many other small parts.

He himself wasn't the cleanest though. His hands seemed to always have caught a large amount of Ape liquid. His helmet had lost its shine due to small amounts of it landing on his face. He had received a few scratches on his body protection when the Apes attempted cut him down with those crude looking swords of theirs.

Cynder looked around her area of sight. It was the beginning of a small victory as only a few stood now. The stragglers were overrun by the large amount of Moles and Cheetahs that had recently arrived prior to the former Covenant showing up. Still, there was Ape resistance, but they weren't going anywhere so as long Tetrestu kept plasma launching the one area Phantoms need to land and hover over in order to retrieve the survivors. Tet was on top of a tall structure, not as tall as the war bell tower but tall enough for him to shoot anyone who tries to escape.

Speaking of Phantoms, the dropship that was attacking the Lekgolo from before started to circle around the area, attempting to aim at one of the Sangheili that were in close combat with the Apes. Ventor stood on his enemy and cut his throat, leaving him to bleed to death. Sarvasu stayed close to him, shooting any Apes that attempted to charge at them with his Carbine. They have received minor injuries, suffering only scratches and bruises made by the Apes when they had the upper hand for a couple of moments. Sarv looked up into the sky, seeing the low hanging menace of a machine stare at them with its front forward cannon.

"Captain…that isn't our Phantom is it?" Sarv alerted Odesa to the Phantom's presence. The red armoured Sangheili looked up in the sky like Sarv was.

"Oh you've got to be kidding me…" growled Ventor.

"If we can't kill the Hunters, I'll at least destroy a few Sangheili before we leave this pitiful city. Bye bye split jaws! Brother, start opening fire now" the pilot shouted his gunner.

In an instant though, the gunner roared as if something had terrified the daylights out of him. He was pointing his turret at something else. The pilot raised a brow, reacting to such confusion. It all became clear when a large purple beam completely ripped the Phantom in half, cutting through it like a hot knife in butter. Minor explosions caused the dropship to fall and crash into a different area quite far from the Infirmary, but still within the city.

Fires took over the crash site, in which Tet could see the blazes spread. Both the front half and back half were lying next to each other; it was likely that both the pilot and the gunner did not survive such tremendous carnage in one Phantom. Both Sarvasu's and Ventor's mandibles were wide open with shock turning to where the beam had come from. This also drew everyone else's attention, Hunters, Moles, Apes, Cheetahs, Sangheili, Unggoy and Dragons were drawn to this raw power that completely annihilated a Phantom in one go.

Out from around where the dropships were supposed to pick the retreating Apes up, a large, mechanical machine revealed its front right leg, a light blue machine leg with 2 green stripes in the middle of it. Apes were regathering, terrified of what was coming around the left corner. The left front leg had come out now and soon enough the front hood had shown itself. The Sangheili controlled Locust had arrived to seal the Apes' fate, turning its mass around the corner and leaning slightly to its right side with a spider like motion.

Fear and desperation was all the Apes had left. Most of them thought the team that was sent to destroy the vehicle lot had rid of this monstrous mechanised vehicle. They thought this was never going to happen as Magnaruckus had explained to them all before the battle began. But here they saw the Locust approaching them with a ferocious tendancy, opening up the port where its main weapon had been placed.

Whilst this scared the Apes down straight to their hearts and minds, this was a clear sign that victory had arrived for Warfang's defenders. Their most vital weapon had arrived finish off all of their enemies in one foul swoop. The spider like walker was going to be their saviour, and the driver of this Locust was surprised to see that there were still many others of both former Covenant and the native defenders still alive and well.

"I must've missed the battle" Tesk thought, seeing the chaos that had come and gone here. He still spotted some Apes backing up against buildings, trying to escape as fast as they could.

"Looks like Raskar pulled though" Sarv stepped in front Ventor, completely amazed by the sight of the light blue Locust that Tesk had been ordered to control but keep it in good condition. Whilst the Locust is powerful, it is a target for their enemies. Thankfully, most of the Apes that carried anti-vehicle weapons have been killed in the ensuing battle.

Veartra too came around the corner behind the Locust, following Tesk's lead. She could see all the bodies that lay around, be it Moles or Cheetahs or large numbers of Apes. It was horrible to look, so much violence in one street. It reminded her of the battles during the Human-Covenant war.

She exhumed a weary sigh, holding the Brute shot she took from the last batch of baboons she and Tesk faced. She ran to catch up with the Locust which surprisingly was a bit faster walking than the average pedestrian. She turned to the Apes. There were only around 10 of them left, looking backwards and forwards towards the Blacksmith Moles and Locust that was soon to corner them.

Cynder, even after already seeing the machine in motion before, was still bewildered with bright wide eyes. This whole Covenant vehicle thing the Sangheili have going was still new to her. Seeing the Locust made her want to see everything else the Elites had in their arsenal, what their culture was as a whole instead of hearing bits here and there from Thel.

She curved her head around to see the other's reactions and the Hunters and Grunts stared at the machine with the same sort of surprise. Near the Grunts was Spyro whose bottom jaw line was almost dropped, he was just amazed as she was, seeing a large walking machine by people who have never made something that can be compared to the Locust.

He caught wind of Cynder looking at him. He was happy to see she made it through this fight, to know that she had survived the Ape's invasion. Her smile made his heart uplift, smiling back at her. Soon enough though, her happiness to see him again turned sour who her expression turned sour, her jaw slowly starting to drop as she looked over him. He raised a brow, wondering why she was giving that look.

"BEHIND YOU!" she shouted at the top of her lungs as the Ape that held a Gravity Hammer had snuck in behind the Hunters whilst they were distracted by the Locust's sights.

The purple dragon turned his head quickly, staring at the Ape's hammer as it was about to drop down on top of him.

"WHOA!" Spyro rolled forward quickly out of the way as it started coming down. The hammer hit the ground and the force it created hit Spyro and made him slide across the cobblestones.

The Hunters and Grunts turned immediately. Hunter 1 was angered to see a resisting baboon that has violently attacked one of his comrades, especially one that is native to this planet. Yapflop and Jabjab backed off as the Ape picked his hammer up and continued to attempt in killing Spyro.

Hunter 1 pushed Hunter 2 out of the way by accident. The colony went to whack the Ape with its shield, but the Ape ducked under it, immediately swinging his hammer around and banging it onto Hunter 1's side, the electricity and force went through the armor and killed a few worms, sending Hunter 1 into submission.

The Ape pulled his hammer back, going back to his priority target, who was hurt from the first strike of the hammer. The Gravity Hammer wielding monkey wasn't going to let Spyro go, he started running at the fallen Dragon.

Just as he was about to strike, Cynder jumped into the Ape's mass, sending him into a completely different direction. She landed on top of him, trying to keep him from killing Spyro. She growled as went straight for his neck like last time, but he grabbed her wings and threw her into a building window.

She screamed breaking through it and crashing inside what seemed to a meat shop. Spyro, feeling throbbing pain in his legs, heard Cynder's scream as she broke through the windows, waking up to see the building she was in. He rushed to her, sprinting over to the shop.

"Blasted beasts! You won't stop me in time before I kill him! It has to be done in order to avenge Gau-" the Ape was quickly blasted away by the beam created from the Locust before completing his sentence. It wasn't a quick death, but it wasn't a long one as well as the torso of the baboon had disintegrated.

The bottom half laid there, not moving a single inch. It landed in front of the Ape survivors who stared at the half melted carcass, groaning and making low moans, grieving for another loss of their brethren.

Tesk grinned, happy he killed another Brute with the most incredible toy he's ever got to play with, "I love this thing" he jumped with excitement.

"Like a little Grunt playing with a Fuel Rod" Veartra shook her head. Her eyes widened when she heard the high voice from another individual, "I heard that!"

Spyro jumped into the broken window to see a back lying dragoness. Cynder looked dazed out, as if the window breaking knocked her out. There wasn't any time to get her back to the room like last time, but from the looks of things, her armor seems to have saved her from a bunch of glass shards. He sighed, relieved.

She made a few low moans before lifting her head up from the window wreckage. Spyro went straight in to help her up, curling his neck around hers with his wing under her body. Using his strength, he slowly pushed her back onto her side and onto her paws. She groaned as she did, it just that it hit her mind to know that she's light enough to be thrown like that, even by an Ape. The Moles were right, this armor was able to protect.

"Are you feeling ok? That Ape threw you like a ball" Spyro, concerned that she could still be hurt even after all she just endured and survived. She smirked as if nothing happened and brushed the dust of her body.

"I'm alright Spyro; he didn't hurt me too much…at least not as much as I thought I would feel…this stuff really works" she looked all over body, thrilled to see not much damage has been done to her asides from the scratches on her armor.

Thel stopped just before the window, seeing both Spyro and Cynder together. He was glad to see her stand upright again once more, especially after fighting the Apes alongside her, "It's good to know you're still among us Cyn. You fought valiantly" he commended on her fighting efforts.

She looked up to Thel, whilst Spyro backed up a few feet to let her go, "You're pretty good yourself…I'll never forget all that for as long as I live" she uplifted her grin. Thel's expression turned negative though.

"It's not over yet though…we have a new problem" Vadam stepped away from the broken window. Both Dragons gave him a strange look, raising their brows with questions in their minds.

"What are you talking about? The Apes brought reinforcements?" Spyro asked, jumping out of the window and landing next to Thel. Cynder jumped out after him.

"No" Arbiter said sourly, "It's not Apes…it's worse than Apes" he walked down the street way to look up at an object that hovered in front of all Warfang's defenders. Cynder looked up…horror washed through her…fear reigned supreme from heart to mind. Her emerald eyes widened like saucers as she stared at a Phantom's open side door.

Spyro felt the exact same feelings, only anger and fury took over him as well. All of the Sangheili re-joined Thel: Darst, Ventor, Veartra, Sarvasu, Tetrestu and Tesk standing next to them with the Locust. Hunter 2 looked up at the Phantom, holding an injured Hunter 1, even if the colony was much heavier than the other was.

Jabjab and Yapflop stood aside next to Spyro and Cynder. As soon as Yapflop saw who was inside the Phantom staring at them all, he rushed in behind Cynder, frightened by the sight.

"Protect me! He's here! **HE'S HERE!**" Yapflop cried under her right wing.

"(Gulps) I have a Locust…don't be afraid" Tesk's hands shook on the Locust's controls, trying as hard as he could to calm himself, but he's not good at that kind of thing.

Veartra stood in awe, now seeing him in the flesh, the very one who has leaded this attack against them all. Prowlus's jaw dropped whilst he carried the wounded Hunter in his arms, both of them now finally seeing the beast himself in reality.

Moles turned to each other in fear, Cheetahs whispered to each other, wondering what kind of threat the beast was against them. The Blacksmith Moles and Apes were both distracted by the sight of the Phantom scene. Sparx, who was hiding the entire battle inside that meat shop, dropped back behind cover and squealed at the same time.

Arbiter took a few steps forward in front of everyone, narrowing his eyes down, determined to take him down, fuelled by hatred and anger towards his nemesis. Cynder slowly walked alongside her Sangheili brother for protection and to support him, leaving Yapflop to cower on his own.

"It's him Thel…" Cyn whispered.

"Magnaruckus…" Arbiter growled, grinding his mandible teeth together.


	61. Relentless

**Consider this as my 2012 christmas present to you guys. The world didn't end and so we shall continue on with our lives. Merry Christmas from Annihilator78 and the cast of Sangheili and Dragons ^^**

He was finally here: the monster of all Jiralhanae, the culmination of a long line of a thousand beings before him, a dreaded individual to all who stood in front of him. Magnaruckus stood on the left side doors of his Phantom, holding the Fist of Rukt clutched in his bone breaking right hand, standing with a posture more reminiscent of Sangheili honour guards. His eyes gazed upon his enemies; the lust of revenge had sparked once again when Mag spotted Thel and Cynder at the very forefront of their resistance.

His bottom lip slowly slid down, exposing an array of meat chomping, metal crunching teeth that desired to rip the flesh off their body's chunk by immense chunk. His left hand gripped tightly as he could as he remembered the time when Thel escaped from his grasp, the moment when Cynder scarred him for life…Mag never forgives, Mag never forgets.

From the looks of the Fist of Rukt, the hammer seems to have received minor detail changes; the electricity seems to have changed from a light blue and white to dark crimson lightning. That's the most notable of a difference from its previous look as the rest of the weapon has been cleaned. Vadam wondered if the Rukt's new electric vibe has changed the way it looks or if Magnaruckus has made significant upgrades since their last encounter when they saved Cynder from the Jiralhanae in the meadow.

The black dragoness's heart pumped wildly with anxiety and fright. This is only the third time seeing the chieftain and he's already out for her head. Her interference had made her a target for all Jiralhanae, and she wasn't in the position to be the first victim for Brutes to go out of their way to kill her. She was used to fighting Apes, but taking on the Jiralhanae is a whole different story, and the meadow battle and death fight with Ras'skar Shenko only slightly enhanced her experience to fight other worldly beings. Magnaruckus would surely strain her skills to fight aliens. Although she fought Malefor with Spyro and barely survived that, Magnaruckus was a whole new being that can endure punishment like the elements Dragons can use.

Thel's eyes were narrowed down to that one Brute with a vengeance. He was sick and tired of Mag's continuous assaults and he's had enough of the chieftain's attempts in trying to kill him. Vadam never knew a revenge driven Brute would come this far just to kill one Sangheili. It's gone beyond just a far beyond between him and Magnaruckus though, far beyond a simple Sangheili vs Jiralhanae feud where only the fittest and strongest will survive.

This post Human-Covenant war has drawn much lesser species into battle. Though low technologically advanced, they have proven to be able to hold their own, against almost impossible odds. They had the experience of a world destroying war that has hardened themselves if they were to meet more unexpected enemies. Magnaruckus and the Brutes are those unexpected enemies, and Thel knew that the resistance behind will risk everything they have to stop these merciless creatures from wreaking havoc upon the rest of this world.

Slowly but surely, Vadam took one step at a time closer towards Mag's dropship. Cynder, supporting him wherever he went, stayed by Arby's side walking towards their nemesis. Still keeping eye contact with the Jiralhanae, they both blanked out the world around them, ignoring the small cries and calls from many individuals, including their friends and brethren.

"What are they doing?"

"Somebody get those two back here, it's too dangerous!"

"That Brute looks very, very mean…"

Moles gibbered amongst each other as did the Cheetahs about the situation but keeping the surviving Apes at bay, keeping spears and swords pointed towards them. The Sangheili sect stopped the Grunts from moving with Arbiter and Cynder, especially Yapflop who didn't want to stay back and let those two be the first to most likely get hurt if this was a trap.

Sparx, who was hiding behind the meat shop's broken window, snuck out and flew towards the rooftops and drew closer towards Mag's Phantom. A coward as he was, he wanted to see how this was going to turn out. A firm facial expression kept eyes on just Mag and Warfang's two of many vital assets and most well-known individuals of both races.

Magnaruckus was the first to break total silence, "Well Thel Vadam…and Cynder… you survived the battle" he smiled grievously down upon them. There was no sound for over a minute. Jikartus and Wraul stood next to their leader, ensuring the loyalty towards the Jiralhanae leader.

Wraul looked devastated and embarrassed. His clan's survivors had surrendered to the city's resistance, being stopped only moments from destroying the Infirmary and cutting them completely off from medical supplies. To see dead monkeys lying all over the cobblestones and watching the survivors stand back against a building wall surrounded by Moles and Cheetahs was just heartbreaking to him. He growled within his jaws with such an insane motive, but Jikartus grabbed him by his left shoulder, nodding no silently and signalling him to calm down to let this all play out.

Thel wasn't too pleased to once again hear the low grumbled and evil voice of Mag again, an unforgettable voice at that, "That was due to the many allies I have behind me Mag, we've been preparing for this while you travelled all the way from your Cruiser" he wasn't afraid of the giant Brute anymore. He's done with Magnaruckus' fear tactics.

"Clearly you have Arbiter. But still, these were just Apes. May I just recall how much trouble you had with them during the first half of the attack? A whole clan was able to match your resistance, an entire army, with our weapons and our equipment. Your only strength was numbers, while we had brute force on our side and punched through your defences until you gathered everyone, including the traitors, to fight back" Mag stared at the Grunts and Hunters who defected to the Sangheili-Mole resistance.

Yapflop and Jabjab retreated behind Spyro, this time instead of Cynder, cowering about as their former Brute leader stared angrily at them. Hunter 1 and 2 raised their back spikes with ferocity; they dared not to bow before him anymore.

"Pathetic creatures, you could be standing beside with me and see victory every day, but you Lekgolo and Unggoy chose to side with them" he pointed towards Darst and the rest of the Shadow of Intent survivors, quickly gaining eyes and a tidal wave of furious growls. Veartra made a light hiss instead of the low grumbling male growl.

"It's a good thing ordered my people to eradicate the other two Hunters we had in the encampment, they could've betrayed us at any moment. Cutting down worms with the back of hammers has never been easier" Mag chuckled remembering when Brutes dragged out Hunter corpses and threw them out of the encampment to be ravaged by time, as well as the scavengers of this planet.

When Hunter 1 heard Mag's mentioning of the other two Hunters that were back at the former encampment, the rage within each worm attained their peak. Even though the colony was injured, these Lekgolo howled and raised the Assault beam, straight up wanting payback for what Magnaruckus has done.

Darst turned immediately, this wasn't the time to attack Magnaruckus who there could be dire consequences. The Zealot ran up grabbing the cannon and desperately tried to pull it down. His shouting was heard all over the resistance as he was almost lifted into the air, "NO HUNTER 1! IF YOU FIRE, HE'LL ATTACK BACK AT ALL OF US! It may be very tempting but you resist the urge!" Hunter 2 supported Kino's case, walking in front of Hunter 1 to block the vision of fire.

Mag watched with surprising amusement. He ultimately savoured the sight of enemies when they hear about the deaths of their brethren and closest relatives. It's all the more reason he wants to continue his fight against Thel.

"You know Vadam, I might have just found a weak with your Hunters besides those exposed worms at the back. Much as it does, it reminds of your weakness. Which is pretty clear that it's right in front of me" the chieftain turned back Thel which a smirk. All he did was raise a brow at this, wondering what his weakness was.

"What weakness Mag? I have my strength and endurance but I assure you that I'm beyond a mere skilled Sangheili. I have no weakness" Arbiter was very self-confident and cocky, but he did bring a good point. As long as he didn't get tired, he had very little to worry about. Cynder was surprised Arbiter had this kind of attitude towards his enemy. She thought he was back to his old ways again, being fearless and unworried about his own life, which they've already gone through before.

Magnaruckus spat at the cobblestones, feigning complete ignorance towards Thel's response, "You truly are blind to see the truth aren't you Vadam? I'm not talking about a physical weakness you dolt, I'm talking about a mental one…your bond with the female" Mag lifted his right hand and directly pointed his index finger towards Cynder. Her eyes widened in surprise when the chieftain started talking about her.

Arbiter's bottom mandibles lowered themselves, his hearts started pounding and his breath quickened as he looked down at her. Cynder shown signs of fear, but bravery ran through her veins as she gulped down the saliva in her mouth. Whilst having the 'I won't leave your side' expression on her face, she turned back to the dropship. He knew she was a prime target for Mag due to not only the scar on his eye but the fact that he couldn't withstand to lose her. He would have nothing left to fight for if she were to be killed.

Arbiter wanted to have a crack at drawing attention away from Mag; he quickly came up with the risky response "We share no bond Mag! We're only allies and that's it, nothing beyond that will exceed those parameters" it was the only solution he chose in order to protect the dragoness that he desires to keep in his life but Magnaruckus was always one step ahead of the Arbiter.

"You've got lies coming straight out of that trap of yours Thel! Don't think that I wouldn't know about relationship you two unwittingly share. Look at yourselves!" Mag showed his teeth again, getting straight to the point by staring at both of the armor they wore. Cynder narrowed her eyes down, not caring about Mag revealing their bond, as she was proud of it.

"It's a dead giveaway that you both 'coincidently' have almost the exact same kind of armor detail. The structure and design may be different but I know Arbiter armor when I see it. I've seen you two together enough times to make me throw chunks all over the place, it's sickening!" he was disgusted by the fact that a Sangheili would develop a close bond with a dragoness that he has only known for a many few days.

Chatter amongst the Moles began to question the motives for both Thel and Cynder. Although Mag was their mighty enemy, it was very true and wondered why Cyn would spend so much time with a being that has only just set foot on this Earth. It brought strange thoughts to everyone.

Cynder, lowering her head and sensing the amount of mental weight that beared on her wings and shoulders, she didn't want everyone to take this whole thing the wrong way. Vadam was the closest friends she's had since meeting Spyro, but her experience in the last Great War combining with Arbiter's experience has given each other so much in common. But when it comes to deep down in her heart, she loved and desired Spyro and she intends to keep it that way for the future to come. One way or another though, she didn't want to lose either of them.

Spyro was slowly starting to question Cynder's motions and loyalty. Only a few days ago did they reveal their feelings to each other's hearts in which that has kept them together ever since they first met. But her reliability on Thel and the time they've spent together did impede something very specific in his head. Where did Cynder's loyalty, and most importantly her love, actually lie. It really stuck to his mind and he was especially worried about the latter. He needed to know all this…no, he demanded to know about Cynder's bond with Thel and how close she's ever going to get with him.

Darst knew that Vadam had a very kind and soft personality towards the dragoness ever since his insanity was wiped out during that faithful night. But Sangheili, never in their history since the birth of their race, had affections for another individual of a different race, considering it's a disgrace toward a Sangheili's family line. Kino knew very well that the Vadam family has a rich history that many others wished to explore, but Thel is the only true descendant of the Vadam family that can continue the bloodline, and he cannot be allowed to waste it on the dragoness.

Magnaruckus continued to embarrass the two in front of everyone, "You both fight together as if you have known each other for years, you help each other numerous times and yet you still consider her as an ally? Lies and deceits Thel! When you brought yourself to the encampment, she and the other purple freak flyer saved your wretched life! The meadows when she was all by herself and within our grasp, you come out of nowhere with the grunts, the freak flyer again, and another Elite! Which I was happy to see die" the chieftain lifted another devious smile as he mentioned Shin's death.

His mind was sunk back into the memories of watching Tarscar being shot by multiple Brutes with Spikers. Thel was completely heartbroken and devastated as he started to remember every single second of that horrifying moment as one of his brothers, his crewmate, die a slow plus excruciatingly painful death. It was too hard to watch, he only knew Shin for such a time and the first time they met was back on the Shadow of Intent when it was still cruising, he treated Tarscar in such a disrespectful manner. It saddened through Thel's hearts, maybe deeper within when that happy blue minor class Sangheili died.

"It wasn't your fault, remember that Thel. I'm to blame for leaving Warfang when I was angry at you for really stupid reasons" Cynder wanted him out of his state of mind, supporting him even further through this hard time of war, death and loss. Thel gazed at her passionate and calming face, her features from her spikes to her markings seem to help his mood. Everything about her has an effect on his emotions, almost flawlessly positive effects.

"I told you, it was nobody's fault, no one is to blame for that event. I shouldn't have pulled Yapflop from the Banshee anyway…" Arbiter didn't want her to feel the guilt, attempting to take her away from the pointless argument they had after Yapflop's accident with the Banshee. Thel took full responsibility for the orange Grunt's fall.

Mag saw this whole moment, again validating his point, catching both of them by surprise too "It's quite obvious you have a secret with her Thel…all the more reason to kill both of you" Mag was up to something with this, it became obvious to Sparx that the brutal chieftain was trying to tear them apart from each other. This would be able to destroy the fighting skill that have attained with each other, and make them both easier prey for the Jiralhanae to target.

"It's not anything like that!" Thel's irritation was starting to reach the apex of a mountain. He bond with Cynder was strong but nothing that goes beyond the border. Spyro finally intervened with Cynder; the wait was long enough to know where her loyalty really lies.

"Cynder, is what that monster says is true?" Spyro seemed to express a firm but slowly rising anger welling within him. Magnaruckus' plan was working almost perfectly.

"No! Don't listen to him Spyro, Thel and I…we're just friends! I still love you more than anything else in the galaxy" Cynder didn't want to betray his feelings and affections towards her heart. She wouldn't be the same ever without him, "He's lying! Remember what I said on the Shadow of Intent? I truly mean it Spyro…I can't-" Cynder was interrupted by Darst who started speaking to Arbiter, stepping in front of everyone and narrowing his eyes straight at Thel.

"If there's one thing the Brute has gotten right for once Thel is that you have had beyond enough time with her and I'm starting to question whether you're actually trying to become her ma-" Darst received his addition of interruption by Vadam, stopping him before he could complete that sentence.

"Not you too Darst!" Arbiter was sick and tired of this pointless bickering "You have got be blind if you even think that way, ARE YOU GOING TO BELIEVE IN A BRUTE THAT'S BEEN TRYING TO KILL US ALL SINCE DAY 1? Are you sure you're still not insane?" Thel's anger and intimidation made most of the resistance back a few feet away from the whole argument. Former Covenant sect though stood their ground, not wishing to further this argument with nonsense.

"I know about our race's genetic history Kino but rest assured that Cynder and I do not share that kind of relationship. She is already someone else's and I don't ever plan to have a…inter-species partnership like that, never in a million years" Vadam wanted that to be clear to his Sangheili followers as well as everyone else stood behind in front of him as an army.

They stood in subtle silence. They all quietened down when some of them felt stupid to believe in a Brute's words. Spyro looked up at Magnaruckus, thoughts raced through head deciding whether to believe in a Jiralhanae's words or Thel's. Cynder trusted in Vadam all the way through the journey and she has shown her affections and feelings towards him. It was when he remembered her wishes on the Shadow at the time of his most fatal injury. How could he just turn her down now?

Kino was under the Arbiter's authority. He was optimistic about his status with Cyn but it was true that he was being played by Magnaruckus. As large and strong the Brute was, he wasn't in any way dumb, and that's a complement from a Sangheili. He backed up aside next the rest of the Elites, staring at the two, not angry, not enraged, but also not happy or calm.

"Spyro…just remember this…you have nothing to worry about when it comes to you and me. Thel's the closest I have to family, but not in the way you think. I need someone to talk to when you're too busy with your own tasks…memories of Malefor still haunt me till this night and being with either you or Thel breaks me away from them. If either of you perish, life will be barely worth living for me" Cynder came absolutely clean why she spent much time with both Spyro and Thel. It's why she needed the both by her side most of the time.

Magnaruckus grew bored and annoyed from all this family/love conversation, slowly regretting this plan, "I thought watching Grunt comedy acts was greatly overrated and boring but apparently you and your freak flyer companion top it off. You all need to learn your place at extinction's side; I hear its calling for more species" Mag chuckled as Wraul followed with, but Jikartus sighed and let the two have their laugh.

"You think you can just destroy us with a swift victory chieftain?" Cynder stepped in front of Thel, coming out from his protection and surprising him completely. After talking

"Cynder?" he murmured.

"Hrrmm…Freak flyer let me tell you this; it won't just be swift, but will also be bloody, brutal and violent as my Brutes will tear you and your little resistance into bite sized chunks. The supports of the Prophet's great words are with us, as well as their legacy; the weapons, the war vehicles, all that has come down to this will descend upon this garbage for an excuse of a city and purge absolutely everything…your leaders, your friends and allies will all burn for trying to stop our advance…and when your all dead, we'll burn the planet along with your defeat. I don't think Cynder…it IS going to be a swift victory. A memorable one at that" Magnaruckus was cocky, arrogant and self-confident that his Jiralhanae will annihilate Warfang and all who stand before them. The dragoness though had a different mindset…

"You don't get it do you? You think it's all about the numbers, strength and assets. You think commanding a bunch of dumb, brainless and savage beasts will win you the day? Let me tell you this Mag…victory doesn't come from the strongest creature or the biggest super weapon. During our war with the Dark Master, we were outnumbered, desperate and almost on the verge of defeat…but look around you, we're still here instead of a destroyed world, we're still here without the rule of evil…we won because we believed that even in the darkest of moments…there's always hope and salvation" Cynder, heart pounding extensively and putting fear behind her, continued to get closer to the Phantom without hesitation, letting everyone hear her voice and what she has to say.

Spyro kept himself from rushing in and stopping Cynder in her tracks, as did Thel who watched the dragoness he's only known for some time, rise out from the emotionally wrecked Cyn in the first few days to the strong willed being he sees her right now. He let her continue to taunt at Mag with words of pure wisdom and heroism.

"Thel gave us all an oath last night: 'On the blood of our fathers and sons, on the blood of our friends and allies, we are sworn to protect the galaxy. Not just from tyranny…oppression…and persecution…but also from annihilation. We are sworn to fight for our right to live, to survive'. Those words had meaning to all of us Mag and you don't seem to understand how glorious it is to fight for those causes. That comes from the heart, something that you'll never have" she hissed at him with such viciousness, but determined to send a message to the Jiralhanae leader. Magnaruckus growled inside his mouth.

"You underestimate how powerful everyone behind me can be with this oath. It doesn't need so called glassing beam to defeat its opponents. Our fighting spirit can be ranged from the leadership of a former Covenant warrior, the elements of a Dragon, the toughness of a Zealot, the bond between worm colonies, the skills of a Cheetah, the works of a Blacksmith group, the friendship between two little Grunts, and many, MANY more that stand behind me. That's what defeated the Apes, they never saw it coming until their people, whom already have endured the darkness, betrayal and turned into those…skeleton monsters. For all I know, these could be the last Apes of their kind…you've recruited a species that's near extinction for your own stupid needs…it's a sign of weakness that the Jiralhanae cannot win without support from another species".

Wraul raised a brow at Cynder. When he comes to think about it, it's true with the words she says. Besides the demented skeletons, the only Apes he has seen are his clan. And that can be a very, very bad sign.

Magnaruckus on the other hand didn't care one bit. He thought it was time to reveal what he really used the Apes for, and to reveal how weak and pathetic they were from the start, time to break every promise he made with Wraul and his clan and send them into total stun and shock "Cynder…I DO…NOT…CARE ABOUT THE APES! I USED THEM AS CANNON FODDER LIKE UNGGOY! TO WEAKEN YOU ALL FOR THE INVASION LATER ON!" his voice, the loudest he ever made it since making death threats to Arby, Cyn and the rest of Warfang.

Wraul widened his eyes in disbelief next to him. He stepped back from his commander, his idol of victory and ascendance for his race. The truth was too much to swallow down, he couldn't believe he was used by Magnaruckus for his own greed. It was the Malefor act all over again and now, the Apes have once again paid the price for not following their own lead. This time, it costed Wraul's clan. He grabbed his mask and took it off, revealing ruby like coloured eyes that have been devastated to the very core.

Wraul was almost too shocked for words, trying to talk to Mag about this ordeal, "Chieftain…you promised us-" but he was denied an explanation by Magnaruckus, spinning his mass around to bring his intimidating masculinity towards the Ape leader.

"I GAVE YOUR KIND A CHANCE, NOT PROMISES! I GAVE THEM WEAPONS AND EQUIPMENT AND YOU STILL FAILED! What surprises me the most is that your kind has the most experience towards Freak Flyers, the Kitty cats and the brown Furballs! THE APES FAILED ACROSS THE BOARD AGAINST ALL OF THEM!" Mag lifted the Fist of Rukt.

Its sudden movement and use seems to have re-stimulated its dark crimson lightning effect as it's about to be used against Wraul. Jikartus roared in surprise, stepping away until his backside slammed against the end of the cargo hold.

The resistance, absolutely every single individual was chattering amongst themselves as they watched a horrifying betrayal. The Apes that were surrounded by the Blacksmith Moles cried and screamed in desperation and sorrow, feeling the heartbreaking truth that their brothers died horrifically for no actual cause, just as an obsolete battering ram.

Spyro and Cynder were watching with new open minds towards the Apes as their leader was going to be smashed off their ally's dropship. They were witnessing a betrayal that would be similar to Malefor's, without the reincarnated Ape skeletons. It was depressing to see that the Apes finally neared their fulfilling annihilation. Cynder had just enough courage to watch her former masters endure one last betrayal before their end truly comes.

Arbiter on the other side of the loaf of bread knew this was going to be sought with violence. He knew this was inevitable. Mag and his kind betrayed the Sangheili when the Prophets used the kill order, why wouldn't the Apes suffer the same fate. When the Ape he interrogated during the first hour of the battle told him that the Brutes were to aid them for their vengeance against the Dragons and Moles, it became clear to him…Mag will use anyone and everyone in order to fulfil his desires. First Shenko, now the Apes. Will this back stabbing ever end?

Nevertheless, Magnaruckus made no hesitation, gave no remorse and felt no regret as he swung his hammer around, two hands holding the handle, with all his strength sunk into this one bone break swing. The Rukt's heat ornament smashed into Wraul's face which caused him to accidently throw away his mask as he felt his left side of his skull break into thousands of pieces. He also felt electrocution of over a thousand volts circulating through his head to the point where he felt beyond immense pain.

Wraul roared as he felt the true feeling of treachery. The defeat, the humiliation, the unexpected disposal of his own clan to fulfil another's needs. All he thought to himself before finally succumbing to his demise was the voice of the Apes diminishing. It was the possibility that his race is doomed to accept extinction. Their past, their history, all drowned away by war and violence. The last thing he felt was his spine breaking up from the impact to the impact of the cobblestone ground. Once the rest of his clan die off, the Apes will be silenced forever.

A loud bone cracking thump was heard all over the area. Everyone went dead quiet as their eyes gazed upon the corpse in front of the, the corpse of an Ape clan leader. The bottom of jaws of many defenders dropped in awe and surprise. The front row backed up more, pushing some of the back crowds ever further away from the terrible sight.

Cynder couldn't believe what lied 1 metre in front of her. Her head shifted away from such a spectacle, shutting her eyes out from seeing anything. Spyro walked up behind her and attempted to pull her away from the dead leader, but she rejected his act by gently but firmly using her right wing to keep him at distance.

Thel just stood his ground. He didn't move, nor did he stand against this. His eyes were set on both the Ape and Magnaruckus. It dreaded his fears of Magnaruckus, the evil chuckling of his nemesis and the howling of the surviving Apes did not help the mood. It only created sadness, depression and even more fear then there needed to be. Vadam could only shake his head and draw full attention towards Mag.

Magnaruckus' amusement soon wore off as he continued to hold his hammer with two hands, commenting on his recent kill, "Another one for the body count…" he didn't seem to care that he turned his back on the Apes. He simply used them to test the defences of Warfang. And it was clear that the Brutes can initiate and attack the city without too much trouble, so as long as they take out the more vital assets they have.

Jikartus' was still shocked by what just happened in front of him. An unexpected attack and a massive blow to the Ape clan, "Chieftain…that was our ally…" he looked down at Wraul's corpse, receiving a grab by the shoulder from Magnaruckus.

"And his clan failed to kill the Dragons, destroy their vehicles, and worst of all, only kill Furballs and Cats. Not one Sangheili was killed in that battle Jikartus, making the Apes absolutely expendable obsolete. Not to worry though, we have them right where we want them, hurt, injured and broken down. When the sun rises, which is just almost an hour away, this place will be smouldered by plasma" he assured Jikartus victory for the Jiralhanae.

The pale golden armoured war chieftain now slowly believed in the fact that his leader and great icon to him has gone insane due to the lust for revenge and killing. Even with the war over and the Brutes in a desperate spot, he still wanted Sangheili, and maybe even Humanity extinguished. It was stupid though, and if the Jiralhanae were to attack Sangehilios and Earth, it would be mass suicide.

Mag continued to enjoy savouring his kill until Thel interrupted it.

"Magnaruckus!" he shouted out to the large Brute chieftain. His attention was immediately caught, staring at Thel with those nightmarish dark red eyes.

"It's become obvious you've gone mad! Killing your own allies, even if they are the enemy to me and the resistance behind, is unjust and unruly. You have no honour when it comes to killing the people who actually deserve it. I have never seen this Ape here do nothing, he like you and that other Jiralhanae in there observed the battle. Just because his clan lost the fight doesn't mean you can just kill your allies on the spot!" Vadam tried to put sense into Mag, but it was useless as he ignored every word the Arbiter shot out from his mandibles.

"Don't bother giving me that goodie little honour act you always give to those Freak flyers next to you, you're wasting the breath you so need for the fight in less than an hour. At that time, her, the purple one, the crimson Zealot, EVERYONE, will all die…just like Rtas and the Shadow of Intent crew, he he he, that was a fun fight he put up…"

Thel growled angrily, remembering the message that Rtas Vadum made for Thel to tell him to destroy the Shadow of Intent. He remembered when Magnaruckus and many Brutes carrying Sangheili bodies into the bridge and all Rtas could do was wait for his end. He clenched his fists in a fit of rage Cynder could see his worst side coming back. She panicked for a few seconds, but wisely decided to get back in front of Thel and continue to taunt Mag about the forthcoming battle.

"It doesn't matter what you say Magnaruckus, nothing that comes out of that rubbish sucker of a mouth of yours will faze us, not even Thel" she looked back at him. Vadam stared at her with surprising awe, talking to Mag in the face like that, "You may have the superior technology and firepower, but even with all that, we cannot and will not succumb to you. Read my lips, WE WILL DEFEAT YOU AND THE JIRALHANAE! For Shin, for Rtas, for Meadow and for everyone else who has died by your hands!" she hissed and growled with all her might.

She wasn't scared of Magnaruckus, nor was she scared of anything the Jiralhanae had within their arsenal. A tsunami of courage flowed through her body, willing to take on the entire Brute army by herself after remembering what she done to the encampment many nights ago.

Jikartus applauded her heroism, "That one definitely has heart…" he murmured, but Mag roared like a feral towards him, hearing such blasphemy.

"Shut up Jikartus! Back to the point…this Meadow character…who is he?" Mag narrowed his eyes down to her.

"He's a Cheetah friend of mine and Spyro's as well as Hunter's. We saved him from the Grublins during the war…he was sent to scout out your forces and he never came back!" she explained Meadow's small details, slowly arising some hints of anger behind her jaws near the end of the sentence.

Magnaruckus widened his eyes, surprised that she had mentioned the scouting cat. He slowly started laughing; his mouth opened wide and revealed his teeth as his low rumbling voice came coming out as he stepped back to pick something up.

"The kitty scout? You mean…this little pussy cat?" he smiled grievously with his alignment of teeth, holding Meadow by his neck.

Cynder gasped in such a sight, her pupils shrunk in surprise. Hunter and Prowlus all the way at the back too saw Meadow being held captive by Magnaruckus. It was so unexpected to them that it bewildered their minds, from the words of the Sangheili much recently, Jiralhanae usually killed their prisoners, there'd be much more of a chance dying as a prisoner in the presence of a Chieftain.

Meadow coughed and threw up blood as he was held by the strong fist of Magnaruckus. He was bruised and seemingly butchered. He had scars all of over his arms and legs, his blood seeped out from the torn parts of his hooded tunic and his tail has lost a bit of fur as well. Meadow was in the worst condition possible, but he desperately lifted his head up as he bit his lip due to soreness, and tried to warn the resistance.

"They're coming citizens of Warfang…there's…hundreds of them…maybe thousands…and they're war machines have grown in numbers…you must stop them!" Meadow shouted out to them all, hoping they would heed his warning about the many Brutes soon to arrive. From the sounds of it, they have more vehicles coming too.

Arbiter hoped to the gods the people behind him wasn't the whole resistance. It wouldn't be, the city spanned a large territory so surely there would be more than this. After the Ape raid, were they still prepared? Shock spread out to all of them, to Moles and the Cheetahs to even the Covenant sect, about Meadow's miraculous survival. However, Magnaruckus explained the scouting Cheetah's trip here.

"I found this little insect crawling around our armada of people. If he's got a talent, it's sneaking around an active force of Jiralhanae. Too bad my new 'assistant' found him skulking around and caused this much pain to him. That's right, his injuries are due to one individual…have him back now, I'm pretty sure he's beyond recovery" he swung his arm back and forward, preparing to throw Meadow off the Phantom. He did it with such strength, throwing the Cheetah into towards the former Covenant sect.

Ventor was stunned by the sudden act, rushing forward to catch Meadow before he ended up like Wraul. The Cheetahs meowed and shouted at Meadow's coming demise, far too crowded in with the Moles to try and save him. It hurt Hunter more considering his too was hurt and couldn't do a thing.

Odesa caught him at the last second, rolling forward to strengthen his grip and assure his catch. Even without a left hand, he could still do stuff without it. He stood back up and turned around to give him to a Cheetah who was panting very hard. He ran through the crowds to get to the captain.

"Lucky catch Elite, thank you for saving him" the blue tunic Cheetah bowed to the Sangheili, greatly appreciating saving their comrade. All Ventor did was nod his head in an orderly justified fashion. Magnaruckus smirked at the Elite who saved the Cheetah.

"Fool…left himself wide open…" he whispered quietly.

"Mag! Who was the individual that did this to Meadow? Was it one of your Brutes? Was it this Ape?" Cynder demanded to know the person behind her Cheetah friend's attacker, continuing her feral hissing at the chieftain.

"No young Freak flyer…as a matter of fact, it's far beyond what you think…" Magnaruckus' smile didn't bring a good feeling. Thel started to wonder who the attacker was too. It's not an Ape or a Brute…

"Then who was it?" Spyro called out to Mag, also asking for an explanation.

"Who have your allied with now? Damn it Chieftain, you'll betray that being in the end too!" Arbiter couldn't help the fact that Mag has acquired another species to help his cause, maybe this time it's the Grublins.

Magnaruckus then spoke, deviously and as if the darkness on his side, in Sangheili language…a trait he learned during the years of the Human-Covenant war: "Rovala seeayu cylugu foresi…"

Cynder and Spyro had no idea what that meant, but from the looks on Thel's face…it didn't seem good.

"Thel, what did he say?" Cynder turned her body around. His face seemed frightened as if he saw a ghost. Whilst it was barely heard, he translated the words Mag spoke.

"He said…Rise up my cyborg friend…" Arbiter had both hearts pumping like very fast. Cynder was concentrated enough to sense his fear. If he was scared, was she to be in fright as well?

"Cyborg? What's that?" Spyro has never heard of the word ever before. Vadam couldn't explain due his breathlessness.

Ventor barely heard Magnaruckus' words, but he had a very horrible feeling as if death approached him from behind, coming to assassinate him. But for him…it was going to be a realization.

"CAPTAIN, BEHIND YOU!" Veartra shouted at the top of her lungs as she stared at an individual in light bending camouflage stalks behind Odesa. She was far too late though. And it was about to cost the Sangheili very high.

Ventor turned his around in surprise, his whole body shifted around but already the individual grabbed him by his left shoulder in which it relinquished a devastating energy sword impale through Ventor's chest, lifting him straight up into the air effortlessly. His searing scream brought others to panic at the horrific scene as an Elite was stabbed by a camo'd being and a weapon created by Elites. His pupils shrunk down to size as he felt an infinite amount of pain, the blade singed through his chest out of his back.

Veartra screamed as she watched her captain receive the most fatal of all fatal attacks a sword can do, running behind a leg of the Locust. Tesk jumped on his seat in such shock as his leader and icon had a blade pierce through him. It was like a real nightmare to him.

"CAPTAIN! NO!" Sarvasu shouted as he ran towards his leader and friend, desperately trying to stop the unknown assailant. Whoever it was quickly took out a Spiker and shot Sarv in the kneecaps, disabling him from running to them both. He shouted at the top of his lungs as he continued to watch with horror as Ventor slowly closed his eyes, not even screaming anymore.

Tetrestu wanted to fire his Plasma launcher at the creature but he the resulting explosions would still kill Ventor, defying the whole rescue attempt. The Hunters couldn't do a thing as their Sangheili officer slowly died off, and the Grunts continued to scream in synchronisation.

"LET HIM GO, WHATEVER YOU ARE!" Sarv crawled towards the invisible creature, grabbing it by the leg and tried to make it fall but the supreme heavyweight of the assassin and surprising armor made Sarv look pathetically weak.

Thel, Spyro and Cynder all watched as this unknown terror kill one of their most known comrades. It destroyed Vadam the most, a Sangheili he rescued from the now destroyed Shadow of Intent was being stabbed right in front of him by an assassin. One working for Magnaruckus as well. He felt himself die a little inside watching it and there was nothing he could do without hurting Ventor.

The Captain was immediately tossed aside from the energy sword like worthless material. He laid there like a lifeless corpse just like Wraul. The blade was still lashed out as the unknown being approached closer…the camouflage started unveiling itself at last. It kicked Sarv of its foot, smacking his face causing him to fall back away from this new enemy.

It approached closer to Thel, Cynder and Spyro, continuing its full revelation. The feet and legs uncovered themselves, revealing to be Sangheili feet. The fear and horrifying realisation to Thel was that not only was it a Sangheili, but he was half organic/half cyborg in nature. The torso and arms were the next to show themselves, showing even more machinery and natural skin at the same time but the minor class armor was what really stood out.

Then its face was shown. Vadam backed up so many steps from Cynder, leaving her vulnerable. It must be a nightmare he thought, but the world around was too real to be a nightmare. Darst gasped at who it was, but his hearts ache at the site. Cynder yelped in fright seeing a ghost in front of her.

Shin Tarscar has returned to Warfang…but not as he used to be, "You left him to die slowly Thel…and now he's going to return the favour…Cyborg Shin, kill Thel and Cynder…and take your revenge"


	62. It isn't him anymore

He stepped towards Thel and Cynder with such animosity and anger. Heart wrenching hisses left Cyborg Shin's gaping mouth, longing for the fight he so desired from the his former allies. That red eye gutted Thel's emotions, he was left breathless as he started remembering the last time he saw this elite. It was when he was supposedly killed in the meadows by an astounding number of Brutes wielding Spikers, shooting beyond so many rounds into him that no one would survive. Shin's other eye just seemed soulless, having no colour and no pupil.

The cybernetic enhancements Mag gave to this revived Tarscar were obvious and frightening, the mechanized parts on his chest, his right arm entirely amputated and replaced as a robotic arm, the glowing yellow lights that powered his being from the plasma producer inside of him, acting as one replaced heart to help the organic one. Cyborg Shin had only two weapons, the Energy sword and the Spiker resting on his waist, but from the gaps within the wrist armor pieces, he still retained energy daggers.

Cynder was the closest to Shin, drawing his attention towards her being the first target. The energy blade stayed at its combat state, dragging the plasma edges along the ground to leave behind orange tinted scarred surface with sparks flying out from behind.

"Thel…what do I do?" she shrieked, not wanting to fight this new horrifying type of enemy, especially a former friend. Vadam was still bewildered that Magnaruckus had done the impossible, but also turned a great Sangheili into a monster from some of the darkest nightmares one could dig into. He was mentally blocked from everyone and everything that surrounded him, only focusing on the cyborg that stood in front of him. It was truly terrifying for him.

Shin hissed with such ferocity as he readied to strike down Cynder, about to raise his right arm. Spyro charged at Tarscar, willing to risk his life for the dragoness. The Cyborg immediately saw him coming, taking a step back and raised his left hand. As Spyro's eyes widened to see he missed completely, he looked up seeing Shin's hand coming to back slap him with tremendous force, sending Spyro across the street sending up dust.

"As you can see Thel, I have enhanced Shin with better reflexes, strength and quicker thinking. He's a living computer with organic body matter" Magnaruckus stood proud and tall with his newest weapon, using him to take on the resistance's most valuable assets.

"You've…gone beyond the line Magnaruckus" Thel continued a breathless, shocked state. He couldn't get over it with a Cyborg Shin just staring in the face of reality.

"Spyro! Thel snap out of it, we have to help him!" Cynder had no choice in the matter. She rushed in to stop Shin, she wasn't going to let a machine kill her partner. Cyborg or not, this new Tarscar was on Mag's side and she can't let feelings get in the way now.

Cynder jumped onto Shin's backside while he was distracted with Spyro, but Tarscar wasn't going to let try anything like she did with Mag back at the meadows. He quickly grabbed the back of her neck and pulled her down to the ground, slamming her into the cobblestones, hearing a high pitched scream in the process. Shin let go of her, attempting to shove an energy blade into her but she rolled out of the way just in the nick of time. The sword dug deep into the ground, but Shin's cyborg enhancements enabled him to pull it straight back out effortlessly.

The black dragoness breathed shadow fire onto the Cyborg, enshrouding him in a cloud of smoke and burning death. She released all she could for almost 10 seconds, but the Cyborg merely pushed through it and kicked Cynder in her bottom jaw with his right foot, sending her flying into a stone building behind her. She grunted in pain as Cyn fell to the ground with multiple bricks falling and collapsing onto her.

Spyro moaned as he stood back up on all 4 paws, shifting his body around towards Tarscar, running towards him and went to wrap his tail around the left leg of this new enemy to trip it over. The enhancements made Shin fully aware of his whereabouts though, curving his head around and swinging his sword at the same time. The blade cut straight through his golden armor, searing his scales to force him away.

"AH! Geez!" Spyro looked at his wound on his right forearm, seeing small portions of blood seep out of the armor taking away the shine and cleanliness of it.

Cynder growled and she pushed herself through the small amount of debris, going back into the fight by running and jumping, trying to claw the Sangheili whilst hovering just above the ground with her wings. At the same time, Spyro let out a bolt of lightning in order to help Cynder and maybe short-circuit Shin's machinery.

Cynder had a bit of trouble laying a claw on Tarscar as he dodged the attacks but she finally clawed the Energy sword out of his grip, sending it sliding across the ground. Angered by this, plus knowing an incoming bolt, Cyborg Shin grabbed Cynder by her two wings, turned around and threw her into the path of Spyro's attack. She was immediately electrocuted, making all of her muscles contract receiving a lot of pain.

"CYNDER!" Spyro exclaimed as she collided into him sending both dragons into minor submission. He too took on a bit of the aftershock of his failed attack.

Metal rubbed together as Cynder slowly opened her eyes to find herself lying on top of Spyro's back. Horrible sharp pain surged through her body from Spyro's lightning bolt. She felt weak all over her body as her vision also seemed slightly blurry. Her body cringed each time it felt sense of electricity still within her and Spyro felt it as soon as he started recovering from the collision. Seeing him wanting to get back up, she pushed herself off and looked straight his face, seeing a sense of guilt.

"Cynder (pants)…I didn't know he'd do pull something like that, are you okay?" he felt extremely regretful for hurting her in such a way. He thought if the bolt was any more powerful it would've killed her.

"Ung! It's not your fault, he's knows every time we attack and he counters in ways we've never known one individual thought possible…we both can't win against him!" she shouted as the thought of defeat entered her mind, never have they both faced a cyborg before ever in their lives.

"But we worked together like this before, it defeated Malefor! Isn't this machine that took over Shin's body any weaker?" Spyro stared at the evil menace that walked towards them as he stood back up.

Cynder too got herself up even though she was still hurting from the electrocution and stands next to Spyro, remorsefully replying her answer, "Malefor didn't know we would together like that due to the chain and I must admit, he was a larger target compared to us. We're fighting some much smaller but still bigger than us. This…this thing will kill us if we don't find a weakness…this is the toughest enemy I've seen in a while…" she couldn't stand the thought of a cyborg beating them, especially someone they use to know. Spyro turned to her with shame…

"Cynder…are you saying we can't beat him with just the two of us?" He murmured with such a toned down innocent voice. She bowed her head down, closing her eyes at the same time.

"I'm afraid so…if we tried to use our full power, we'd surely destroy this cyborg but we'd also level half the city…it's too much of a risk…" she sighed, knowing their situation is hopeless.

The Cyborg Shin was about to grab his sword off the ground which laid just a metre in front of Thel. He was still mentally paralysed, shaking his legs in fear with Tarscar coming closer to him.

Cynder turned towards both of the Elites, widening her eyes to her surprise that Vadam was still being foolish, "THEL! DO SOMETHING, THAT ISN'T SHIN! NOT ANYMORE!" she desperately ran over to his position, but she moved too slowly from the electrocution and tripping over her own feet from her blurred vision.

"Kill…Thel…Vadam" Cyborg Shin spoke in a very dark, evil and low tone, continuing its relentless and ghastly hissing. Arbiter gasped heavily, hearing his new voice and stepping back. He didn't want to fight the Cyborg, defying Cynder's words to fight his brother from another family line.

"Geez Thel! I'm gonna regret this!" Sparx, who was still hiding on top of the roof decided to throw away his cowardice and fly down with quick speed, hovering around the Cyborg's red eye and blinding him, stopping the Elite from grabbing the Energy sword.

The Cyborg roared in surprise, flaying both arms around in an attempt to swat Sparx out of his way. Thel took even more steps back as he watched a somewhat former nuisance become his saviour as Tarscar was brought away from the energy weapon, becoming the cyborg's annoyance and distraction.

"Sparx?" Spyro exclaimed as he watched Shin shake his around desperately to rid of the glowing dragonfly as the anger increased even more than it already, drawing the both energy daggers as a final resort.

"Guys help me here, I'm not ready to become chopped up!" Sparx cried out for help knowing he was done for if there wasn't any intervention.

Darst, overcoming Shin's unexpected return, rushed in his own sword ablaze to aid in stopping Shin while also calling back to the other elites of their job, "Veartra! Get Ventor aid now! The same goes with the rest of the Sangheili" Kino quickly turned back to his former ally, still blinded by Sparx.

At last, Shin grabbed Sparx with his left fist, tightening his grip to make the dragonfly lose all of his oxygen. A faint desperate yelp was heard before being tossed onto the cobblestones as Sparx barely breathed, his body structure was crushed and broken.

Spyro's widened, shocked eyes laid open to his broken down half-brother, a sudden emotional breakdown as memories of him and Sparx's adventures together flooded in. In recent days, he has neglected his own friendship with the glowing dragonfly, from since he hatched from his egg to where they had to split up in order to stop Malefor, and further on today.

"Sparx! No!" the purple dragon couldn't help it, running over to the physically ruined Sparx. Cynder could only stand there with grieving remorse. She had hated the dragonfly all her life, since befriending with Spyro and especially since they started bonding very strongly. Suddenly, she felt all of that animosity wash away, speculating Sparx's fatal injuries with dire worry on her face.

As Shin turned around to raise its blades at the rushing Darst, they both clashed with energy sparks dissipating around them as the Cyborg used his blades to block Kino's sword. They began a fight to the death as they countered each other's attacks, but Tarscar always seemed to have the upper hand due to more manoeuvrability. Still, this was precious time going for the wounded, a distraction for Cyborg Shin.

Veartra and Tetrestu, including Tesk who jumped out from the Locust, rushed to aid the downed Savarsu and the mortally wounded Captain who was in an epileptic shock. Veartra and Tesk panicked as they kneeled down instantly, both of them holding down Odesa by his shoulders and arm.

"Don't die Captain! We need you to lead us, we'll be nothing without you!" Mevlos hovered her face above his with such fear of losing him as the bleeding wouldn't stop. Her frail eyes watched as Ventor breathed radically, unable to regain control of it. She curled her mandibles with such frightening grieve, slowly losing the red armoured Elite.

"I can't stop it, it's too much. Where's the bandages! Anybody?" Tesk shouted out to the defenders, demanding for his leader. A Blacksmith Mole was about to run back and grab anything the Infirmary had in store but Clin came rushing out with a few other Moles with medical aid galore, bandages, medicine, the whole lot in white cases.

"This is just like Spyro's wound…forgive me for my language but damn it all down to the depths of bloody hell! He's bleeding too fast…" Clin pulled out white, clear and very bandages, woolly and warm and he quickly started wrapping around him, Tesk holding up the Sangheili.

Tetrestu supported Sav's walk over towards them, carrying him by his shoulder, "He's still losing a lot of it. C'mon you damn Elite, survive!" Clin slammed his left fist down as he slightly opened the bandages top side to set loose a green sort of liquid from a needle, medicine that is supposed to stop blood from the arteries and other areas for a short time but it was hopeless, it still kept coming like a tidal wave.

Under the Phantom however, Darst charged at Shin with the sword at the forefront but Tarscar simply countered side-stepping to the left immediately and spun his right dagger around and slightly scarred Kino's exposed scaley skin. A hint of purple blood landed on the cobblestones as Darst roared angrily feeling the searing pain of an energy blade.

Cyborg Shin smirked evilly, tilting the head to his left with drooped down arms, "Don't stare at me like that Shin! I will destroy you if I must! RARRGH!" Darst raised his sword high in the air, unleashing his left wrist energy dagger for added melee power.

Spyro scrapped his underbelly along the ground, sliding towards his dragonfly brother. A tear slipped in front of his right eye as he couldn't believe how much of a fatal state Sparx was in. Shin put a lot of force into crushing the glowing dragonfly into a level where a normal bug would immediately die a horrible death. Sparx was put into a bone wrecking zigzag style shape, barely breathing.

Carefully wrapping both forepaws around Sparx, Spyro gently lifted him up and slightly nudged him around and hoped he wouldn't do any more damage than the dragonfly was already in. Cynder trailed slowly behind the purple dragon.

"Sparx…wake up Sparx" he whispered, "I know you're just faking this…you've been in worse situations than this. C'mon" Spyro started lose the hope he had, "I'm sorry…I didn't mean to leave and neglect you this entire time, Cynder and Thel…needed me in most situations, and I had to…comply and help them" he couldn't take no more. Spyro lowered his head in deep remorse and regret. Cynder cooed out to him, desiring to support the purple dragon's…heavy blow to his whole soul.

"Spyro…" she called to him. Seeing Sparx's mangled body just wracked her heart with grief.

"He's alive Cynder! He has to be…he always does this to trick me" he won't accept it. He won't accept Sparx's wrecked being as his demise, as Spyro hadn't properly treated the dragonfly with a huge amount of companionship since Malefor's demise.

If Sparx was gone, how could he cope with it for the rest of his life? How could he tell his foster parents that their son is lost for all eternity? He couldn't take much more as the first glistening eye water started carefully to expose itself.

Cynder sighed with a shake of her head. She knew her relationship with the dragonfly was far from the best…but she knew why Sparx was so overprotective with Spyro. They were family and that's what mattered to each other the most. She didn't know she was taking him from the dragonfly.

All she did was turn away from such a horrible sight. She had suffered enough loss from the past week, another very well-known person was not what she needed right now…especially with Cyborg Shin on the loose.

Thel gazed at the 3 of them with a surprising amount of grief. He never really cared for Sparx as much as what Spyro had for and definitely had not as much as what Cynder has…but seeing Cyborg Shin just attempting to kill everyone he knows so closely, Sparx included…it made him start to think twice about his former Sangheili friend.

"Shin…Shin would never do this. He's a trustworthy and honourable Sangheili, not a murdering psychopath…he would never hurt Cynder, Spyro, Darst, Ventor and even Sparx…but the Cyborg has taken over his body with those enhancements" looking over towards the duel between the Zealot and Cyborg, Kino's fighting spirit grew weary as he was kicked in the stomach, making him fall on his backside in pain.

His sword slid away from his grip, leaving his reach as Tarscar took this chance to leap onto him and attempt to stab both daggers into him, but Kino clamped both hands onto the clenched fists of the Cyborg to try and hold him back for as long as his strength could withstand.

"TRY ME MACHINE! TRY ME!" Darst roared with mandibles open wide up as Cyborg Shin roared back violently with a devilish grin.

Cynder's eyes widened seeing Darst in trouble. She shifted attention towards Thel who was still just standing there.

"Thel if you won't help him I will! Stop remembering the past!" she sprinted into the fray willing to put her life on the line for Kino. Vadam shock heightened up until it reached its peak.

It chills him down to the core remembering everything he talked to Cynder about remembering past events, past things that shouldn't and never have happened. But they did, and now Vadam was being a coward for it.

He clenched his fists, tightening them down and shaking his head. He took hold of his energy sword handle and looked over towards the fight between Darst and Cyborg after immediately hearing a mechanised scream.

The crimson Zealot pulled his legs in and used both of his very large feet kick the monster off of him, plummeting into a building wall. The enhancements helped Shin resist pain as much as possible so he simply shook off all the dust and rubble that fell upon him.

"What did Magnaruckus exactly do to him?" the Zealot quietly whispered to himself, seeing this as a never ending fight until they're all completely exhausted.

Cynder swiftly passed Darst without hesitation and opened her maw, letting loose 2 red spheres completely covered with the power of Fear that had black scars all over them. They both homed in on Cyborg Shin where, immediately, he withdrew the daggers so he could freely take the Spiker from his thigh and shoot spikes at the spheres causing them to explode before they could even reach his position.

"What the?" she exclaimed as Shin rolled forward and kicked her away from him. The dragoness groaned as she stopped next to Darst.

"You've got to be kidding me, you have these elements and he knows how to counter them?" Kino stared down at her with shock, seeing that even her powers were going to be useless as well.

She stood back up grumbling angrily, "If I have to use all of my elements to stop Shin, I will!" she rushed forward again, not stopping her assault.

"She's got the fighting spirit to stand up against a former friend at least" Kino looked into the corner of his eye at Thel to prove his point. Vadam returned Kino's stare with his gaze.

All the crimson Zealot did was sigh with annoyance, disappointment, and decided to help Cynder's rush against the Cyborg by going back into the fight, hoping to support the black dragoness however he can.

On a much distant location far away from the most prominent of civilisation, the Chronicler watched as a book hovered onto a very high shelf, back into its place in the very large archive of history and much more. He turned his large mass around to take his attention to the pool of visions.

He took his few steps forward calmly and quietly, almost leaving no sound whatsoever. The chamber was only overshadowed by the storm that was beyond the structure. Ignitus's head hovered over the crystal clear water, seeing his reflection looking back at him.

"Morning is very soon for Warfang…how the great city of Warfang preparing for their enemy's arrival" the sky blue Chronicler demanded to know the inhabitant's preparation for the Jiralhanae invasion. It didn't long until the water started to ripple around, showing a moderately damaged city with a few burning towers already.

"By our ancestors…what happened?" the overwhelming grief and surprise shrouded Ignitus deeply. It was still night for the city, why was she already suffering Brute wrath? Was Magnaruckus lying about his intentions all along, the Chronicler thought.

As showings of a damaged Warfang continued to show, it was finally revealed itself to Ignitus clearly from these recent events. Dead Apes lie in most of the streets with a few destroyed Phantom wreckages lying in rubble. Grief came over him as soon as he saw lifeless bodies of Moles and a few Cheetahs around the streets.

"This isn't what they expected...what they prepared for was Jiralhanae, not Apes. Where are they-" Ignitus quickly cut his line short as he watched the fight between Cyborg Shin and the 2 duo that stood against the machine. His widened like dishes, seeing Shin's mechanised body stop every attack made by the dragoness and Zealot.

At that moment, Cynder blew shadow fire at Shin whilst Darst distracted him with clashing dual daggers, but the Cyborg caught notice of the dark fire. He rolled back as the fire passed in between both Sangheili, completely missing its intended target.

As it dissipated, Darst followed the attack by withdrawing his energy daggers and hauled over the Concussion rifle, firing the entire mag at Cyborg Shin. It had no choice as it was getting up from the roll, so Shin simply crossed wrists together and blocked the explosive bolts of plasma. Explosion after explosion, Cynder ran forward to strike, covering herself within the Shadows and went full steam ahead. Shin turned his head to the right, spotting the incoming shadows but was narrowly too late to avoid her as the last concussion shot.

She broke out of her shadows and spun her scythe tail blade around, slicing the Cyborg's neck on the right side. Cynder, recovering from attack, blew a gale of wind at her opponent, hitting him with the force of a Hurricane. Cyborg Shin collided into the building, breaking through the stone walls and sending out a hail of dust.

Darst called out to her as he slotted another mag for his rifle, "Is he dead?"

Cynder stared at the broken building with dread running through her veins, feeling an unparalleled amount of darkness, a frightening disturbance within the rubble.

"It shouldn't have been that easy…" Cynder whispered to herself as she walked into the dust cloud inside the building. Darst stepped towards it in case something went terribly wrong.

Ignitus exclaimed as Cynder into it, knowing there is little time before she was to be Shin's next victim.

"Time is running short. Tarscar, come to me now…Chieftain Magnaruckus is using you as I speak…" The Chronicler curved his head around towards the space of nothing except the surrounding wall. He looked down as mists magically formed into the soul that is Shin.

"Is there something wrong Ignitus?" his soul still retained his former body's looks, even after the time he has spent in the chamber with the Chronicler, having learned all there is to know about Dragons. Ignitus turned back to the pool where it still kept sight of the ongoing death battle.

"Mag has turned your body into some monstrosity…it has fully revealed itself to Warfang and her defenders. It's attacking Cynder and Darst as a very aggressive enemy that knows no bounds in its power" he couldn't withstand the unbearable looks of Cyborg Shin's new enhancements…they were an abomination even for a Sangheili.

Tarscar's eyes widened, "It's already attacking the others?" it was undeniable he was just as gutted as the Chronicler.

"I'm afraid so…" Iggy turned stared at the pool as Cynder was fully enshrouded. It couldn't be with her now due to the evil presence inside the building.

"Is anyone hurt?" Tarscar rushed over to the pool hovering his head over it. He concentrated his thoughts towards anyone he could think of; the first of many was Darst and the other elites. With Tesk, Tet, Veartra and Sav, he could see Ventor slowly losing his life.

"That's one of the survivors of the Shadow…my body did that to him…can you save his soul like mine?" Tesk felt like this was asking too much, but nevertheless, the Chronicler could only shake his large head.

"I can't save everyone who dies Shin. Only the strongest of hearts, courage and determination are given another chance…its very rare Tarscar. You must consider yourself very lucky" Ignitus turned to him. Shin looked down to the smooth brick surface, saddened, ashamed that his own life was somehow more important than Ventor's.

"But…how am I more important another Sangheili's life. There must be a way-" Tarscar didn't want to be a higher echelon over the dying Elite, thinking that his life was no more important than Odesa's.

"If it was possible to save everyone I would try to my Sangheili friend…but death is a part of life, and most of the time it's impossible to stop it" Ignitus turned away from the pool of visions as well as Shin himself.

"But what about deaths that don't involve a natural cause? Such as being stabbed with an energy sword, I DIED BY A BUNCH OF SPIKES!" he hated the whole purpose of soul saving, if the Chronicler can save him, why not Ventor.

"I cannot explain everything about it Shin…but now is not the time to debate life and death" the Chronicler slowly grew annoyance as Shin kept on pestering to him about it, walking towards the pool of visions. It rippled once again, showing a sky view of what's happening.

"the Cyborg has begun to wreak havoc upon your friends…with Ventor being protected by 4 elites, only Darst, Cynder, Thel and Spyro and the strength and endurance to fight it…but Thel is still bewildered by your body's return and poor little Sparx was crushed within the palm of the Cyborg's hand…and Spyro is absolutely devastated…leaving only Darst and Cynder to fight your body off, and they've only done so much they can do…"

Shin could see Darst stand in front of the dusty rubble, awaiting the dragoness to come out with hopefully her own wellbeing still in moderate condition, "It…hurt the dragonfly?" Shin wasn't happy at all now. His body had stabbed Ventor and crushed Sparx. It all came together now; his own being was trying to kill them all in the name of Magnaruckus.

"He saved Thel's life in doing so" Shin sighed and shook his head. He's done with this chamber and being a ghost for almost the entire time since rescuing Cynder in the meadow. He has been watching them during the Shadow of Intent phase, the great and noble speech Thel made after it and all so forth. It was time he returned to his own body and aid the resistance in their fight against the Brutes.

"Ignitus…I need to get back into my body, now! I can't let the others suffer while I stand here and do nothing" Tarscar stood tall and proud, determined to get back to his own body and save his friends from the clutches of Mag's new evil minion.

The Chronicler's eyes shifted towards Shin, seeing that this is what the Sangheili ghost wanted, to end the nightmare his own being has become. He only nodded, siding with Shin's statement, "Then maybe it is your time to leave this place and return from whence you came from, it shall take me some time to build up the power to send your soul back" Ignitus explained the current objective to be addressed.

"No debate here Chronicler, take your time" Tarscar suggested.

Ignitus could only shake his head at that suggestion, "Cynder and Darst don't have enough time as it is" he contemplated on their current situation with Cyborg Shin. He lowered his to fully concentrate on drawing his energy; energy that was needed to send Shin back was immense and heavy on Ignitus's shoulders.

In Warfang, Cynder scoured through the dust heap building as it started to gradually dissipate. She couldn't find any sign of Cyborg Shin but for some odd reason, she could feel his presence. She checked behind the bar and under every table and chair, she wasn't going to go upstairs due to the fact Darst would've seen him. The walls hid absolutely nothing either, it's like that the beast had just vanished.

"Come out Shin! I know you're in here somewhere…no…no you're not Shin; you're just some kind of a machine in the guise of Shin. You want us to betray him by calling yourself Shin and that's why you've got Thel on a fright, as well as many other Warfang individuals out there. I know you're in here!"

She found herself suddenly bumping into something that was very hazy, staring at what she collided with. Remembering the same camouflage technology used by Thel and Brute Stalkers, she knew immediately what she hit. A leg started unveiling as it swung to kick her in the chest, sending her screaming through the air, out of the dust cloud and catching Darst's attention.

"Dragoness!" he exclaimed with such surprise.

Cynder moaned as she bounced along the cobblestone ground, sweeping by Darst and stopping just behind him. She left a small trail of her dust as a result of the attack from the Cyborg. Speaking of Shin, it jumped out from the dust and hissed violently as the camouflage fully uncloaked, pouncing in front of Kino to use a combo of ruthless punches.

The right fist crashed into Darst's right side face, and then the left one to the stomach which led to punching Kino's left side face. For a final blow, it crossed the right fist to the left side, throwing down all of his power into one back fist smash, sending Darst roaring plus sliding along the cobblestone street. He accidently lost grip of his rifle in pain and fright as never was he so ambushed like that in years, especially by another Elite.

Darst stopped just before Thel's feet whilst getting up with such rage upon his shoulders, "AARRGGH! BLAST THIS MACHINE!" Kino kicked the ground irritatingly, angered and gobsmacked that he was outclassed by the Cyborg.

Cynder had her eyes shut from her last injury, slowly standing up on all 4 paws. She shook her head to stave off all the dust she collected along the way. Her groaning indicated herself that she grew tired and weary from the previous fighting with the Apes, let alone the losing fight against Tarscar.

It became clear that she and Darst would never beat this menace by themselves, "I'm done for...we can't stop him" she admitted defeat. Every time she attacked, she would fail beyond comprehension. Every time she distracted the Cyborg, it would find a way to counter attack. The camouflage too was an annoyance.

Shockingly, in a turn of events, Thel stood beside her. The black energy sword was drawn out as she looked up to her brother in Sangheili blood. It was such a stunning surprise to see him ready to fight against the Cyborg, since Cynder had watched him do nothing but stand on the sidelines and watch the fight unfold. Her emerald eyes widened to his company and backup which may also lead to a turn around with both him, her and Darst.

"Since this isn't Shin anymore, we might as well let him be at peace with the other side. Magnaruckus is just using him to decrease our morale and weaken us. That's all this Cyborg is being used for…" Vadam stared at the approaching enemy, who saw its sword handle lying on the stones beside it, picking it straight back up from Sparx's earlier distraction.

"Thel…" she quietly whispered, unable to engage in a moderately sized conversation.

"I'm sorry Cynder. I'm done being a coward though. Now is the time we strike back with all that we have, no holding back at all here" The Arbiter set eyes upon his Cyborg enemy, willing to die for whatever the cost of killing it was. Cynder couldn't argue with him at the moment, instead appreciating the backup she had so desperately needed.


	63. A choice in life

**I'm in College now guys, great just what I needed. I'll still work on the story guys, don't worry, I'm still here my things might slow down even more if the work I'm given a LOT OF GODDAMN ASSIGNMENTS! Which is inevitable…**

Darst moaned as he stood back up from his beating by the Cyborg, standing beside Thel as all 3 of them stared at their former comrade. Shin made slow hisses as the mandibles spread out menacingly and frighteningly, something most Elites would never do unless they lost their mind or completely devoted to killing their enemies. He kept his sword by his side, waiting for them to attack first.

Darst murmured his low toned voice, still saddened by the fact that they still had to fight against him, "It hurts me inside to see what he has become…We've travelled far from the Shadow's crash site, lived in an environment that was all new to us…only to watch Tarscar die a horrible death and turned into something…horrible" Kino shook his head, all sight away from Cyborg Shin.

"Destiny has decided to let Shin fall into darkness Darst…it's a fate no one should suffer. I just hope he died before this monster was created in his place" Vadam raised his sword and not backing down now. Cynder looked up at him, feeling safe and protected once again by his side.

"Do you really think that Thel? Do you really think destiny should lead every person's soul in a direction that they'd never divert off course from? Because that's not how I believe it…I believe everyone has a choice…Shin chose to give his life so that we could get away from Magnaruckus…" Cynder stood by that belief. It was one that Thel would most agree on; it drained all their regrets for leaving Shin behind that dreadful night. Darst hummed inside his neck as the Cyborg took a few steps forward, slowly becoming impatient.

"Maybe your right…it would release a lot of guilt that have stained upon my shoulders" Vadam lowered his head, but she looked gazed into his eyes, ensuring him that it would be alright. She always helped him in such situations like a mother and its child…whilst the situation was entirely different it showed that their bond was getting stronger with each event they both fight in.

Shenko hissed horrendously as it tilted the head side to side like the feral creature he has become, staring into its enemy's eyes with a vengeance. Using Magnaruckus echoing words, thinking that they have betrayed him, he sprinted towards all three of them with a bloodlust. The dramatic change of speed issued the 2 Sangheili and Dragoness to immediately go on the defence as Shin jumped into the air with his blade at the forefront of his attack.

Spyro looked up at the fight that was before his eyes, seeing Shin's blade collide into Darst's. As the superheated plasma swords scrapped against each other, Tarscar landed and pushed the Zealot back, allowing some room to counter Thel's horizontal slash, blocking the attack within mere seconds and avoiding a scar to the stomach.

Darst accidently let go of his blade, lying down next to him as he groaned angrily, humiliated by a smaller yet stronger Sangheili, "Blasted enhancements, you do more than just buff up the reflexes!".

Cynder immediately backed up and quickly spun her tail around, smacking the blunt side of the blade into the back of the Cyborg's left leg whilst having enough strength to make him fall on his feet in humiliation. Vadam took his chance, attempting to impale him in the chest but Tarscar quickly reacted. It used the energy sword to plough the impale move away, making a sound so ear-breaking everyone could hear.

Darst growled getting back up; angered by Shin's attempt to push him back to gain a full advantage over Thel and Cynder. With his sword back in his hand, and he pushed himself off the cobblestones, rushing right back into the action as Thel forced former friend to back off by taking out his Carbine, holding by the barrel, and smacked it into the Cyborg's face as hard as he could.

The force of such a blow broke the gun into 2 pieces. Shin spun 360 degrees due to being hit by the whole handle of the weapon, walking backwards away from the Thel. As it regained control, Tarscar took out his Spiker with his right cybernetic hand and aimed it towards Vadam, attempting to cheat this fight out.

Cynder growled as she ran to Shin's left side, seeing the gun being pointed. She wasn't going to let the Cyborg kill her Sangheili brother right in front of, so she opened her maw to let out a gush of shadow flame directed towards Shin's weapon.

Shin saw this coming immediately as it sprung out of her mouth. He reacted quickly by rolling backwards to initially avoid being burnt up, staying in a crouched position as it gave Cynder a death stare. Her eyes widened horrifically as she backed away further from the Cyborg, who got back up and aimed at her.

"Darn it!" her voice reached a high pitch as Spikes were launched from the inside of the Brute weapon, fast firing and spreading out attempting to hit her whilst she ran. A loud roar came from Shin as his mandibles opened up menacingly.

Cynder took a few seconds to blow some projectiles away with a gush of wind, stopping those sharp objects dead in their tracks and falling just before her, narrowly escaping injury. She breathed heavily as Tarscar reloaded his weapon quickly, dropping the empty mag on the ground and resuming his aim at the dragoness.

As he fired again, the black dragoness acted quickly by taking off from the ground, flaring her wings opens and dusting off the cobblestones right into the air. Tarscar hideously shouted as he fired into the air, unwilling to give up his target even if she flew above him.

Though as the spikes drew closer and closer to her body even as she tried to get away, Darst roared at the top of his voice, charging behind Shin. The Cyborg turned around, annoyed and furious that his opponent resists his violence. Fortunately, since Cynder made him use the Spiker, Darst had nothing to standing between him and cutting the machine down.

Shin played his next move as the sword came bearing down. As Kino's arm came down, Tarscar grabbed it with his left hand using a lot of strength to throw the zealot off-balance of his target. Aggressive and willing to do anything to stop the Sangheili at all costs in the name of Magnaruckus and their goals, he shoved the Spiker's blades into Darst's exposed belly area where his armor did not protect him.

All in just a few seconds, Darst felt something he has never encountered before. The realization of it all, the extreme jolt of pain that was felt as the blades sank into his abdomen. His head slowly looked down at his bloodied gut as his own liquid, something he has rarely seen in his time, came sliding out like a very slow waterfall.

Kino didn't scream, nor did he not resist. All that was heard from his was the slight movements of his mandibles, shaking like a quake would. The Cyborg still carefully but aggressively pushed the Spiker's blades in even further, causing more dark purple blood to slow spill out of Kino's self-being.

A hiss of victoriousness was upheld by Shin, fully aware that his opponent wouldn't be able to fight no more. Thel's anger reached its peak as he roared at the top of his lungs with his sword up front. His voice could be heard throughout the city, even the sheltered inhabitants and Guardians could hear him, raising their heads to look through a fairly big rectangle window.

"Something doesn't feel right Volteer…" Cyril whispered.

"Someone is in a very bad mood from the sounds of it" Volteer calmly replied back to his Ice Guardian ally.

Cynder saw everything with surprise on her face as Vadam recklessly ran towards the Cyborg who attempt to kill Darst was working without flaw. It reminded her of their first Brute encounter near the cave…only this time, the Arbiter was the Jiralhanae.

Spyro couldn't help but watch… "Don't Thel…" he didn't want to shout out to him for an unknown reason, but it may lie with Sparx being fatally wounded in front of him.

"WAIT THEL! DON'T-" Cynder's pleading words didn't reach him time. The Cyborg quickly cocked his attention towards Vadam as he readied his black blade of defiance, desperately wanting to release Kino from his vigorous and bloody fate.

Cyborg Shin quickly took the Spiker's blades out of Darst's abdomen and threw it at Thel's head, who charged wildly towards him. Whilst Darst groaned from the searing spills of his own being, Tarscar's weapon's blunt side smacked into Vadam's face and stunning him momentarily, stumbling around like a headless chicken.

As the gun dropped on the cobblestones, he took the chance, speeding towards Thel like a super heavy freight train. Shin lowered his torso as he sprinted towards the Arbiter and tackled him into his chest head first. Surprised by the amount of force that collided into him, Thel's mandibles spread opened as he roared, flying back and sliding across the street, much to everyone's shock. Magnaruckus smiled deviously at that moment, arms crossed and all. Jikartus murmured as he watches his enemies foolishly take on this new threat to the city's inhabitants.

Thel stopped just before the Blacksmith Moles behind him, surrounding him for aid, "Arbiter! Do you request assistance against him?" the leader questioned his Sangheili commander.

All he did was shake his head, "Don't be so ignorant to what's happening in front of you…you won't stand a chance against him…" Thel groaned with heavy hearts, feeling his head slowly moving side to side as an effect from the impact.

Suddenly, a Mole guard in old gold style armor pointed out a sight that should've been addressed first, "Arbiter Vadam! Your blade is…" he chattered his teeth so suddenly.

Thel lifted his head up a tiny bit to see Cyborg Shin grabbing the black Energy sword he accidently dropped when the impact came. He could see behind him Darst dropping to his knees and covering his wounds with both hands, but it didn't stop the river flow that was his body fluid.

Vadam growled as he stepped back up. He could feel the stinging pain from the aftermath of the blow send signals up his spine and into his brain. All he did was stare onwards towards Cyborg Shin coming closer with the black blade raised.

The Blacksmith Moles took their chances and ran in front of Thel in defence of their general, raising their little metal swords and wrist bows at the Cyborg, "You shall not pass demon of the Sangheili!" their leader shouted fearlessly and bravely at Tarscar.

The red eye narrowed at the Blacksmith leaser, making him a personal primary as Shin's left wristed energy drew froth alongside the black Energy sword. It didn't care what the Moles said, Shin was determined to kill each and every one of them.

Out of the blue though, as if she was an angel coming to save them from the clutches of the devil, Cynder dive bombed through the air, spreading her arms and wings out behind Tarscar as he was distracted by his enemies. She grabbed onto his backside, latching her front claws over and around his neck and her back claws around his abdomen. Her wings wrapped around the Cyborgs arms to his sides, holding the black sword against his knee armor and slowly burning the metal.

Even though she had constricted him to like an anaconda tightening its body against the prey, the sheer strength and power of Shin's enhancements shows their colours when he attempts to break her grip. His veins popped up on his organic arm whilst also hearing the unbearable arm whirring wildly.

"Thel! I can't hold him forever!" Cynder screamed out as she could barely hold Shin down, slowly but surely she felt her paws and wings slowly spread.

Spyro only watched further on, seeing how the Cyborg is getting out of Cynder's constriction. As the ancestors watched him in disgust as he let the dragoness take on this mechanical menace alone, but he knew if he left Sparx to help her, he could consequently lose his glowing brother forever.

The purple dragon looked down at his companion, so heart wrenched seeing him in such a mangled state, "Sparx…c'mon…you can live through this" Spyro didn't want to let loose a tear for he kept hope that Sparx would survive through this dark time.

The dragonfly himself on the other hand…thought otherwise, "Dude. Just look at me, I feel like a badly grown stick out of a tree. This is some real bad damage" Sparx desperately tried to move, but it just hurt too much. He wasn't able to fly, nor was he able to lift himself up. Spyro's paws, which are surrounding his brother, were the only things that could move him.

Just in the corner of his eyes, Sparx spotted Cynder constricting the Cyborg, but she was still losing her strength. Thel wanted to help her but he was almost weaponless except for a plasma rifle, but he would be accidently shooting her and his wrist daggers wouldn't help either.

Sparx looked back at the purple savior with saddened eyes, a sight Spyro couldn't resist seeing, "You…gotta go help her man…she can't defeat that thing without your help" he urged his dragon brother to get up and help the dragoness he loves, even if Sparx has had a bad history with her. Yet Spyro shook his head and argued against it.

"I can't leave you in the state you're in! You would die if I left you here…I'm not going to let that happen after losing Ignitus just over a week ago…"

"Look Spyro…I may have hated the relationship you two are in…but that was just my jealousy getting in the way as it always did. To be honest…you and Cynder would have a great life together" Sparx stared into his brother's eyes, knowing that his time was set to its limit.

He couldn't hold it anymore; the purple dragon unwillingly let a tear from each eye come down over his snout. He didn't know what to do now. Sparx pushed on even further, "Listen, if you let Cynder fight that thing on her own, she will die…Thel has wasted all his energy fighting that guy. Look at him" Sparx made Spyro look up at Thel. The dragonfly was right, Thel was exhausted to the core.

"If he tries to save her, he'll die too…I may have made him go on that suicidal mission when I didn't want him to but he has done a good job rallying everyone together for the final showdown"

Spyro intervened, "Sparx…don't make me choose…I can't lose you. Remember everything we've done together, all that we've accomplished together…and remember back at the forest where we used to play…" Spyro gently rubbed his next to Sparx's to show how much he loved him as his step brother.

There was a fork in the road…and Spyro had to choose which path he needed to take, "You have to choose dude…your life with Cynder…or your dragonfly brother. Trust me Spyro…you would be miserable and depressed without her".

Cynder or Sparx…future mate or dragonfly step brother…their lives are in his paws at this moment.

**Sorry about the very slow pace of chapters but I'm needing to do small ones now due to the College spamming assignments at me. Trust me, you'd guys would be waiting for more than 3 months if you wanted another lengthy chapter. Let me know how frequent want the chapters to be. But hey, the story ain't dead at least .**


	64. A Brother's farewell (part 1 of 2)

Cynder moaned deep within her throat as she held her strength in to keep the maniacal cyborg menace constricted well done. She anxiously and most desperately waited for someone to strike down the beast once and for all, but her situation at hand only increased in danger.

Darst was still on his legs whilst he put huge amounts of pressure on his abdominal wound, putting him completely out of action as his life depended on it. The Sangheili were still catering to their dying Captain, who coughed up a large amount of blood and landing to his right, with some of it catching onto Veartra's blue/violet chromed armor.

"Sarv! We need more medical equipment, this isn't enough!" her eyes grew more sorrowfully as the only meds they had were painkillers, herbs and some metal but sharp tools that were usually used to close the gapping wounds, but Odesa's wound involved a large amount of super-heated plasma burns inside the organism. Nothing on this world was able to save the Sangheili from such a fate.

"The Moles said they don't have anything left, they're working on each other and the cheetah's wounded. As a matter of fact they almost don't have anything left. Even Clin said they were almost empty and he's working on that Meadow creature" Sarvasu couldn't give the slightest good news, as there was barely any to share.

Tesk looked at Veartra, seeing her head lowering with such sadness…heartbroken, that her leader, the very individual that has led to her and the rest of the squad's own survival, the one that she's served under since the beginning of her Covenant career, is slowly losing the very essence of his soul. Soon, very soon, he would be lifeless. And all their support efforts just might go down in vain because of it.

As Shin slowly started to break free from Cynder's grasp, he moved back and forwards in an effort to break free. The black dragoness quickly caught wind of this and used her tail blade that was still free and impaled the back of the Cyborg's right leg. It's loud hissing/scream almost deafened Cynder to the core due to her head and hearing being so close to his mouth.

"That's it! I can't stand seeing her in that position!" Thel whipped his right arm out and let loose the wrist dagger, barely able to stand by as his dragoness sister is the only willing to stop the monster that is Cyborg Shin.

"Look, Thel's going to kill Shin!" Yapflop squealed in excitement yet watched in horror as his favourite Sangheili in the resistance is about to be finished off.

The Moles moved out of his way as pulled back his arm, clenching his fist and aimed at the Cyborg's face. Anger filled his eyes, knowing Cynder wasn't able to combat the monster by herself.

Suddenly, Shin broke free as his arms were spread open and the dragoness opened her maw wide open in shock as she fell backwards on the ground. Immediately, Tarscar tightened his left fist and swiped it across Thel's face, knocking him down and making roll along the ground before his dagger made it to its target.

"No he's not…" Jabjab drooped his arms down in disappointment, hoping the fight would've ended right there.

Shin hissed, enraged that he was constricted for that long by a nuisance that was Cynder. Spinning his mass around, his full attention was towards the very vulnerable dragoness, who was tired and exhausted.

Her eyes open wide as Shin grabbed her by the neck and menacingly, not being gentle at all with her fragile weak spot. He lifted her as he choked her to the point where she couldn't breathe. Quiet loose sounds of breath were all that was coming out of Cynder, since her windpipe couldn't get any oxygen whatsoever.

Tarscar took his time with this as drew his right arm back, readying to kill his native enemy once and for all. To Magnaruckus, this was Deja' vu all over again since he remember back in the forest surrounded meadow, he too also held her by the neck.

Mag pretended to shed a tear by streaming his left index finger across his eyes, "That cyborg makes me so proud. If I can't kill her…" he leaned his head forward to have a better experience of this moment "Her own former companion sure can!" his voice changed from an innocent Brute voice to an evil low toned sound, leaving a grinning and freaky smile.

Thel groaned loudly, feeling immense pain from that last hit. He barely lifted his head up and saw what was happening. He was too late to save her, for he himself was hurt and exhausted to the core, "No, Cynder!...I've failed to protect her" his left arm reached out for her but his weakening made it go limp and hit the ground.

Spyro watched in horror as his choice was about to decide on its own merits. Sparx anxiously and furiously spoke his mind, seeing the purple dragon still not attempting to save the one he truly wanted to protect.

"Spyro, she's going to die if you don't stop him! If I die, and Cynder goes too, then you won't have anyone to spend the rest of your life with!" Sparx coughed violently as his anger slowly rose towards his brother's non-existent intervention.

Spyro shook his side to side, knowing he would be sacrificing one life for another's. It was too hard for him to decide as voices within his head kept saying his name over and over again as well as voices that pointed towards events that he was responsible for. These voices were individuals he had met or not in his life time, ones that most likely would have died during the Great War. They made him almost go insane.

"Spyro! Hey Spyro! You're the legendary purple dragon? She's the terror of the skies, a monster created by the Dark Master! You're not a hero at all, you're just a phoney! It shows the bond you both share. I will bring about the resurrection of the Destroyer…and the end of the world!"

"Sparx, I can't do this! I want to save you both!" tears came sliding down his face, scared, frightened to let one of them pass on into the afterlife, where he would never see them again until he too comes to the end of his lifespan…it would take beyond years to wait for that.

"Hey dude…" Sparx said quietly to Spyro, knowing this last sentence will make him decide, "What would Cynder do if you were in her position and she was in yours…?" those words from the Dragonfly hit Spyro's heart like an oncoming freight train.

It wrenched it from the inside, imagining what the dragoness of his life would do in the same scenario. Knowing her all too well and seeing that their love for each other seemed unbreakable, Cynder would save him. She has done it a couple of times already in this conflict and he has saved her numerous times in the past...

The black blade was at the ready and any second could Shin end her life. Spyro lifted his head right up with a face that shown what his decision finally was. The voices in his head were ranging from some Moles to Ignitus to even Malefor himself. However, as the last voice came into his head, he remembered the soothing and beautiful tone he became attuned to ever he first met her…it gave Spyro all he needed to make it final, "Then I'm with you…I love you (echoes)" Spyro's eyes open wide up with shock and exhilaration as his heart raced without no intention of stopping.

Spyro jumped up, still having tears on his face, and without hesitation he began running towards both Cyborg Shin and Cynder, leaving Sparx behind in his mangled state to slowly 'fall asleep' in peace… "You've been a good brother Spyro…tell Mom and Dad what's happened in these past few years…and when you do tell them…bring her along as well to show proof…"

Shin opened his mandibles up, letting loose a terrifying hiss that set up Cynder's final moments before her demise. She was utterly scared, frightened and helpless. Her last seconds were to be a black energy sword through her body to quickly end her life. All she could do as her body slowly became lifeless and limped, with her tail swinging slowly back and forth, she spat her last words out.

"Ancestors…I'm sorry…for what I've done…I failed our kind…I failed all of us…(coughs up a morsal of dark red blood) I've failed my own life…" she slowly accepted what was coming, knowing there was nothing that can be done…

As Shin started thrusting the sword towards her hear, milliseconds away, a bright, burning comet like fire violently and brutally smashed into Shin's left thigh. Within the same moment, Shin's eyes widened, both organic and mechanical, with riveting shock as his thigh curved around the comet fire, dropping both Cynder and the black Energy sword.

It screamed at full height as the fire wore off to reveal Spyro fully angered and enraged by Shin's attempts to kill Cynder in such a way. Cynder's lungs finally regained enough oxygen to bring some of her senses to light, her backside armor colliding into the cobblestones as she coughed multiple times, even spitting some blood out due to her lack of air. The blade dropped right next her, deactivating at the same time.

With most of the fire around him dissipating, Spyro let loose a fully charged lightning attack from his maw, striking the Cyborg as it slid along the ground and into the crowd of Moles, who all ran away from the fight that was suddenly brought right before them. Shin screamed in agonising pain as both electricity and scorched armor and skin ruined his abilities to counter.

The retaliation from Spyro caused great to Magnaruckus as he growled between his sharp teeth, seeing Shin suddenly lose all his momentum and ruining a perfect opportunity to kill a nemesis of his.

"That didn't just happen!" Magnaruckus roared, causing Jikartus to take a step back, "Why did that just happen! DON'T THEY KNOW WHEN TO JUST LET GO OF THEIR MISERABLE LIVES AS FATE JUST GETS THE CHANCE TO END THEM?" the furious chieftain stomped his foot, causing the Phantom to lose some of its hovering balance.

Everyone saw what Spyro was doing. Angered by Shin's attempts to kill the black dragoness, Spyro had no choice but to try and kill Shin. Thel began getting back on his feet, witnessing the terrible damage that was being done to Tarscar.

Every time Shin tried to get up, charged up bolts of electricity kept on suppressing him, damaging his cybernetics all over his body, even some fairly vital parts, parts that even kept him alive in his cybernetic state. Spyro didn't give a damn though, he was following the natural instincts within him to protect the one he loved. And that meant eliminating the threat by any means necessary.

Shin screamed, suffering from each 3 second strike of electricity. His body was unable to repair the damaged sections to passive repair overloading, which was unable to comply and unable to fix injuries. It looked at Spyro and screeched in searing pain, attempting to crawl over to the purple dragon and exact complete vengeance. But the yellow electrical bolts kept it down.

Hunter, being supported by Prowlus to the Infirmary and help with his injuries from the previous Phantom encounter, watched his companion show his true form of anger. Not only it baffled him to see the purple dragon push Shin nearer to his supposed defeat, this was the very first time he saw Spyro enraged like never before. Unbeknownst to Hunter though, this wasn't the hero's first time angry like this.

Cynder scrapped her front right claws across stone by stone, creating an ongoing and unrecognizable searing sound that gritted Vadam's teeth as he walked towards the both of them, kneeling next to Cynder and gently placing both of his hands around her upper body, rolling her weakened body to face him.

"How are you feeling?" Thel needed to know her health status, to see if she was stable to continue fighting on.

All she did was cough and moan, "I need rest Thel...I'm feeling…tired" she was barely able to keep her eyes open, feeling all numb and empty within her bones, "What's Spyro doing?" she asked weakly.

All Thel could do was look up and stare at Spyro continuously electrocute Cyborg Shin. The effects of these attacks started peeking out as Shin relentlessly screamed in horror, giving a terrifying light show to the audience that was present.

Magnaruckus on the other hand was displeased, annoyed that Shin wasn't actually able to carry out his duties…grinding the sharp teeth together and clenching his fists as tight as he could make them, he quickly shifted attention to Jikartus and, without warning nor permission, he took the War Chieftain's Fuel Rod Gun and aimed it at Spyro, pushing Jikartus back at the same time, right into the back of it.

"DIE YOU PURPLE LIZARD! NEVER DEFY ME AGAIN!" He fired, in quick succession, two rods at Spyro, moving quickly towards the attack purple Dragon.

Thel looked at the Phantom and spotted the incoming attack, turning his head immediately towards Spyro, desperately needing to warn about… "THE FUEL RODS SPYRO! LOOK OUT!"

**I'm making two parts for this and I'll merge them both for when part 2 is done, I needed to get this out as soon as I could.**


	65. A Brother's farewell (part 2 of 2)

Spyro, hearing Thel's voice from behind, cocked his head around. The two fuel rods were coming in too fast for him to avoid, smashing into the purple dragon's left side. He roared in agony whilst he slid across the ground, completely stopping his violent attack on Cyborg Shin and colliding into Tesk, who was still knelt down on the ground by the Elites and their dying captain.

Raskar jumped in fright as Spyro moaned. The purple dragon was feeling the painful radiation of the fuel rods cover the scales on his left front arm. Luckily, his armor protected him enough to make sure the rods didn't penetrate inside his scales, leaving only gapped breaches.

Tesk's eyes were as open as perfect circles, surprised and disheartened at the sight. The other Sangheili shifted their attention to Spyro, then to what caused him to be in this state. Magnaruckus gritted his teeth side to side, throwing the Fuel Rod at Jikartus without warning.

"At the very least, you could've asked!" The war chieftain moaned, getting back up and hauling the weapon on his backside.

Magnaruckus simply and somewhat irritatingly replied "It would've just taken longer to do that. I don't tolerate failure but Shin is the only way to get rid of these messily rats. He better be grateful for what I did" Mag grumbled inside his neck. This immediately brought up a point in Jikartus's head;

"Wait a minute; I thought you wanted to kill the freak flyers and Vadam yourself? You've been advertising that to us since we first encountered them at the encampment!" he shook his to open eyes just a bit, having the sense that he was lied to by his own leader.

The giant Chieftain, rather than answering back to his apprentice, looked down back at the fight that went on below the Phantom. Jikartus growled a little bit inside, irritated to not get an answer.

As Cyborg Shin barely got up, he started stumbling around after the shocking revelation he went through. Over 5 million volts but have been shot into him due to the fact he had great trouble seeing through his mechanical eye.

Thel and an exhausted Cynder sat and weight for what Shin was going to do next. Just as he finally regained a set amount of consciousness, He looked towards the Sangheili group, spotting a moaning Spyro in front of them.

Desiring to exact vengeance for what the purple saviour did to his body, both organic and mechanised, he stomped furiously towards them. Sarv walked back away from Ventor's body, seeing that Shin had his eyes on them.

"We gotta go guys! He's coming towards us!" he alerted the rest of the squad, causing them all to turn their heads to the Cyborg.

Veartra almost squealed when her eyes caught site of Shin, just being a metre out from them all. The rest of the crowd started backing up, including Hunter, Prowlus and the Grunts. Tesk attempted to drag Spyro away from Tarscar but when his left foot stomped before them, Shin hissed angrily at Tesk, scaring the living soul out of him and falling on his behind.

"W-Wait! You can do this to me! We're the same! We're Sangheili; you can't possibly desire to kill one of your own comrades!" Tesk desperately scuttled away from Shin, pushing his legs back and forward with the support of his hands helping him back away.

Fittingly and most unexpectedly though, Shin began to speak his dark, evil and low mechanical voice once more, stabbing fear into Tesk's hearts, "Not…the same…we are different" but Shin stopped immediately when he caught sight of the groaning purple dragon in front of him.

Seeing an opportunity to murder one of Mag's primary nemeses on the spot, an energy dagger protruded out of its metal shell. He raised it into the air, ready to finish off Spyro. A desperate Cynder called out to him in anguish, fearing that he's going to die.

The purple saviour, barely hearing his partner's warnings, he only looked up to see Shin, he soon to be murderer.

Magnaruckus looked over the horizon, seeing the sun finally rising up to shine upon the mountains that it climbed behind. Knowing that time was running short, he needed to get back to the main Jiralhanae lot or otherwise the real attack may have leadership problems.

"Damn it! Morning has arrived…if I don't get back to the pack now they'll start fearing that I have been lost in the Ape attack, and that fighting amongst each other is the only the way to gain back leadership…Pilot! Get us out of here…leave the Cyborg to deal with them" the Chieftain looked down at his cybernetic creation, unfortunately having no time to pick him up in the ensuing crowds that surrounded him.

"Yes Chieftain, pulling out now" the Brute captain in the cockpit took his order willingly, but Jikartus objected to this order.

"Wait, Cancel that! Aren't you going to get the Cyborg back on board?" he shook his head in shock, not believing in the fact that Mag attempts to leave quite possibly one of their best weapons behind.

"No Jikartus. He's only been able to disable one of them during the entirety of the fight between him and those miserable little rats. He's no longer useful to us. Now, do you mind?" Mag demanded that Jikartus stood down from command. A long and weary sigh exited Jikartus's maw, backing away from the chieftain.

"I thought so. Get a move on pilot!" Mag commanded instantaneously.

Shin's head looked up, hearing the sound of a Phantom slowly leave the area. Everyone, including the Cyborg watched as the enemy leader left Warfang, being the only survivor out of the entirety of the Ape invasion.

He eyes widened in complete shock. His master, his creator, has just left him for the resistance. Tarscar couldn't believe it; even though his cybernetics took over most of his feelings he couldn't but roar up towards the sky. Arbiter watched his former friend tightened his fists as rage and the feeling of betrayal entered the Cyborg's mind.

Cynder took this moment to get to Spyro's head, warning him to move away, "Go Spyro! Move whilst he's not paying attention!"

He looked towards her, nodding his head quickly and moving away from Shin, shuffling against Tesk as the Locust driver got back on his feet. Tarscar turned around, having been foolishly turned away from his main target.

He still had his blade out though, and he marched forward towards Tesk and Spyro, enjoying the feared faces they had on.

"Shin stop! Don't-" Thel shouted out to the Cyborg, making one last attempt to get through that skull of his. Though all of a sudden, Shin stopped in his tracks, frozen still just in front of the purple dragon and the Locust driver.

Tesk whimpered as he stared into Shin's organic and red mechanical eye. The Cyborg's fingers on both hands twitched, as if a part of him was malfunctioning.

"What's wrong with the blasted thing?" the Blacksmith leader called out to Tesk, as everyone was in surprise awe at the sudden frozen enemy.

"I-I-I don't know!" Tesk stepped back further between his Sangheili squad mates.

Thel and Cynder stayed close together, he being behind her, awaiting their former friend's next move. Thel was over the black dragoness for protection, in case her weary body wasn't able to further

"What is he doing?" Cynder whispered quietly to her brother.

"He's been unpredictable thus far, if I knew what he was doing I would've been able to match against him...this is just insanity" Vadam shook his head.

It was like a magic spell that was casted upon him unable to move a muscle besides his fingers. All of a sudden, his eyes started to twitch too. Eventually, after minutes of pure silence, he threw his head in the air and screamed voraciously.

"GEEZ!" Tesk shouted, unable to bear the horrendous volume.

"AH BY THE ANCESTORS!" Spyro cried out.

"What in the world is wrong with that thing?" the Blacksmith Mole covered his ears.

Thel and Cynder growled and attempted to cover their ear holes that were almost invisible to the naked eye, but the screeching wouldn't stop. The entire crowd did the exact same, the Grunts, the Hunters, the Cheetahs and every single Mole inside and outside the tent could not stand it. Something was very wrong with Shin.

"WHAT IS THAT WRETCHED NOISE?" Clin clenched his fists as he was helping an injured Cheetah, who was wounded by plasma burns from a Plasma cannon.

"Someone in shocking pain, I know that for a fact!" A colleague of Clin's looked at him, positive that whatever was wrong with Shin, it was very painful.

Suddenly, a strange white aura started appearing on the Cyborg's body. The aura was absorbing something inside Tarscar's body, making a large trail over the walls and travelling far over the horizon. Thel looked up and his pupils immediately thinned like never before. An anomaly of unrestricted proportions was set in front of him, and to his knowledge it was something he's never seen in his life.

"Cynder, look up…" Thel tapped the dragoness's right forearm with his hand, alerting her about the new revelation in front of them all. Her head lifted up, her maw dropping in an instant.

"Whoa. That's…new" she couldn't believe her eyes at all. With these recent events combining into one, she started to believe she was actually in a nightmare; the first thing being the unexpected Apes, then her former friend turned into a Cyborg and now this pure white aura that stretched from Shin's body to wherever it lead. Being too far to see where it was coming from, they weren't going to take any chances following the 'beam of light'.

Cyborg Shin threw itself around, smashing into a nearby crate in an attempt to get rid of whatever this was, even throwing himself into a building and sending up a torrent of dust. Whatever the aura was doing, it was sending the Cyborg into a self-destroying maniac, being viably desperate and hoping to get rid of whatever was causing this anomaly.

The fact is though, where the trail lead was far far FAR away from Warfang. It lead to a mysterious island where the aura impaled deep down inside, the same island Spyro encountered when he was on a personal mission to bring Cynder back safely 3 years ago.

At the very source of this aura, Ignitus was using his own natural powers as the Chronicler to send Shin's ghost back to his body. The large dragon concentrated his energy to keep the Cyborg suppressed which was why it was throwing itself into the environment around it. He groaned every time the Cyborg hit something, which temporarily disrupted the link between Ignitus and the Cyborg.

"It really doesn't want you back does it Tarscar? Ungg!" He groaned again when the Cyborg smashed into a large garbage bin.

Shin's ghost watched the pool as the supernatural transport link was almost ready to send him back and retake his body at long last. He has been watching every moment of this fight since the Cyborg's attack. He watched it murder Ventor, he watched it violently attack Thel, Cynder and Spyro, and he watched it stab Darst in the abdomen with the Spiker.

When he watched be crushed like the defenceless little critter he was, Tarscar couldn't take no more of it. He knew everyone would think he has been reconstructed by Magnaruckus to serve his purpose, and now the Cyborg has made the Sangheili Shin Tarscar a murderous, reckless killing machine. He intends to put an end to this charade once and for all, and reunite with the comrades he has desperately wanted to talk to.

"With the Chieftain heading back to the Brute army, this is my only chance to regain what I've lost noble Chronicler…the cybernetics inside my body have taken this too far, and its time must come to an end. I need to fight alongside them again, and to finally quell Mag's army and bring peace to this planet once again…once Magnaruckus is dead, no more blood will need to be shed. This place already has enough dark history for one life cycle" Shin has grown wiser, only towards the knowledge of the Dragon race.

He has learnt the origins of their elements, Malefor's rise to power, the entire genocide war between the dark armies and the united creatures that were under a single banner, absolutely everything. Although he has learnt all this, it comes with a price. He promised Ignitus never to speak to the other Sangheili about their history due to the importance of unwanted attention. It was only fair, but sooner or later, Ignitus explained to Shin that eventually, the Elites will know everything they need to about the secrets about the Dragon race.

With all the information gathered here, Shin came to conclusion that if the Dragons were invaded by the Covenant during the ongoing war created by the Dark Master, both sides would have been wiped out, but not without huge losses of ships, resources and people. It was beyond lucky that they never discovered this world until almost a week ago.

The Chronicler ached as it stretched his power even further towards near apex levels. It took up so much of his power that he could barely withstand it all. Every second he grew weaker and more exhausted as the line between him and the Cyborg was immense, this was Shin's only chance to get back to his comrades, the people he calls friends.

"Tarscar, I can barely hold it as of now…the line should be ready! Your soul must jump into it now, if it doesn't make it to the Cyborg by the time it breaks, you'll be lost for the rest of your afterlife..." Ignitus was slowly slipping on the floor as such heavy, yet unnatural, weight was pressed upon him.

Shin ran by the huge dragon and prepared to jump in, asking one more question before he leaves this historical place, "What do I tell the others? Should I mention you to them or will this be kept secret if I have to?" Tarscar asked in great succession.

Ignitus turned his head around towards Shin to answer this as quickly as possible, "Only if you want to Shin…but know this, Spyro cannot learn about my existence until he is ready, the same goes for Cynder and even Thel…AHH! HURRY NOW, THE PATH IS BREAKING!" Ignitus groaned as the Cyborg through itself at the crowd, landing into the Moles.

"Thank you Ignitus…I owe you my life…literally" Shin flew into the huge white stream of aura, his soul being absorbed into it as it all rose atop the island mega structure, out of the room and away from the island.

Shin's soul sped across the entire landscape as the sun steadily made its annual dawn. Besides natural beauty of this world, he also noticed scarred landscape from the long waged battles that deeply marked this landscape. Abandoned villages and temples were all but forgotten, overtaken by wild life and the green environment.

Inside the city, Cyborg Shin screamed hideously standing back up from the Moles. A few warriors were fine but still shocked and surprised by what just occurred. The white aura still burned bright on the Cyborg's back, unwilling to let it go until the original owner finally returned.

Ignitus had sweat coming from his forehead, almost about to let go the aura but he wasn't going to allow that until he felt Shin's presence among the living world once again. Tarscar was just over Warfang now, diving straight down into the city and directly at Cyborg Shin, who fell to his knees in constant pain.

Cynder looked up as she saw a large pulse within the white aura, falling towards Cyborg Shin. Little did she know that pulse was Shin, and she raised her right forepaw in the air to let Vadam notice the anomaly in the sky.

"Look Thel…" she spoke weakly.

The Arbiter looked up and was in awe of the pulse. Whatever was happening to the Cyborg, this was what the whole wait was for. The pulse speared into the city, and then Cyborg Shin itself. As the pulse was absorbed into its body, it stopped screaming, with both eyes wide open.

"Great Scott! Finally it stopped!" A Mole warrior shouted out.

The aura receded instantaneously back to where it came from. Cyborg Shin collapsed onto the ground without any moan nor scream. It's like the aura shut him down for good.

Everyone was finally relieved. The terror of the Cyborg had finally come to a close. Whatever the anomaly did, it truly put Cyborg Shin down for good. There was no movement, no muscle spasms, no blinking whatsoever.

The people of Warfang were finally able to regroup and mourn their dead now that Cyborg Shin was done for. The Moles cheered and jumped with happiness, as did Yapflop and Jabjab, with the cheetahs making proud stances over their fallen Ape and Cyborg enemy. The night was finally over, but the hardest fought battle was still yet to come, and they must hurry and heal before their true enemies arrive.

Thel stood up on his feet, carrying the power drained and exhausted Cynder his arms, one under her neck and the other at the base of her tail. Her back was against his arms and she faced her Sangheili brother.

Thel could only sigh deeply, letting Cynder feel his chest rise up and back down, "Whilst this is a victory…we can't celebrate now. Magnaruckus is coming back with his army, that's why he ran away" Vadam carried Cynder to the infirmary so they could receive any form of medical aid that was direly needed. All the black dragoness replied was a gentle lick on his left cheek.

"Then…we'll need to heal quickly…won't we?" she smiled, albeit took a bit of strength to do it due to her current state.

"The one who you should making careful licks to is Spyro…he saved your life once again" Thel felt as if he couldn't receive her gratitude, as he was the one who was simply knocked back again and again by Cyborg Shin. She looked over towards Spyro, who was staring over towards where Sparx laid.

"Thel, put me down…quickly…" she wanted to get over to Spyro immediately knowing he just lost someone so close to him…the ability to explain how devastated he was became an understatement. Sparx was a huge part of his life, to see him gone was…something that can't be described.

Arbiter looked over to Spyro, seeing him in such a state. He nodded his head up and down, putting down the dragoness and letting her go over to her partner. Spyro calmly, but still absolutely heart-stricken, walked towards his brother who had passed on during the purple dragon's act against the Cyborg.

Cynder limped over to him, wanting to comfort him in this…this aftermath. Spyro had started crying over Sparx for his glow was no more, his wings weren't moving and not a single sense of self body motivation was made. The dragoness caught up to him and cuddled him as tightly, wrapping her left wing over his body.

Her emerald eyes took sight upon Sparx. She couldn't believe the reality of this grim situation…Sparx was gone…and nothing could be done to bring him back. Dread filled within Cynder, highly unable to stop it. She wished this was all a terrible nightmare…but a nightmare this was not.

"Spyro…I'm so sorry…" she dug her head deeply into his neck. Her own tears started coming out of her eyes, glaring at Sparx's lifeless body.

She couldn't help but remember all the time the 3 had spent together, how their adventures came to fruition, how it all ended in disaster, happiness…every single memory of those 3 was flying around in her mind, remembering the great times they had together even though a part of Cynder still kind of hated him…but in that sarcastic way. She still treated Sparx as a friend and friends they still were...

The truth was though; she was no more attached to Sparx unlike Spyro, who had spent his entire life knowing the dragonfly and his parents, from the hatching of his egg, to defeating both Cynder's corruption and Gaul. It was up until the point whereas they had to split up due to their mission through the ring of fire, the barrier before Malefor's lair. To Spyro, there was no purple dragon without that one thing in his life that he treasured the MOST out of everything. No Sparx meant no saviour to Spyro.

"How can there be the purple saviour when HE can't even save his own closest people…I stood by whilst everyone was attacked around me, including you! I failed Cynder…I-I failed to save him!" Spyro lowered his head in angst, tears falling to the cobblestones in many waves…he even coughed every minute because of how he was unable to control his feelings at this point.

Cynder gritted her teeth as she dug her forehead under Spyro's jaw, unwilling to let him go, "A title is never meant to change who we you Spyro…you are still a Dragon under all the words that people have called you" she gently nuzzled the underside of his bottom jaw, where softer scales were laid out whilst they weren't covered in his golden, yet fairly damaged armor. She closed her eyes and let her affections roam free as she mourned deeply for Sparx's loss.

Spyro, whilst he couldn't resist her gentle touch, was still suffering inside his heart. Even Cynder couldn't break through his emotional barrier and she would be the only one who could breach it. If she was unable to get through to him, no one else would be able to.

Spyro's body trembled violently with his falling tears still leaving his eyes. He has never been this saddened since Ignitus's passing, a moment that was thought to never be surpassed for Spyro. Cynder kept her hold on him, even if her wing started to chill up due to Spyro's cold back armor. The metal that protected the two dragons made small metallic rattle noises since Cynder didn't want to leave her partner's side, desiring to help him in any way, shape or form…but there was nothing she could do keep his mind occupied as he continued to blame himself for Sparx's loss.

Cynder opened her eyes and looked back at Thel, standing many metres in front of a cheering crowd. She could see the fire in his slitted eyes as Thel felt an angered presence within him. A reaction to what was happening behind him. He turned his body structure around towards those Mole crowds, and all he could be drawn to be is Shin's cyborg body and the Elites carrying Ventor to the Infirmary even though it was a lost cause.

Vadam's bottom mandibles slowly opened, turning to a wounded Darst aided by the Hunters and Grunts. The bleeding in the Zealot's abdomen wasn't stopping. The Hunters couldn't do anything but protect the Sangheili and the Grunts were too small and inexperienced for medical care, only able to lead him to the Infirmary as well.

Finally, the Arbiter turned to that happy cheering crowd…how was this in anyway a cheering and hopeful moment when his friends were hurt, damaged and emotionally ruined. He snapped at that moment when Cynder shook her head knowing this wasn't a time for joy…and Thel was going to make that clear.

He walked up to the crowd with loud and bellowing roar, "WHY ARE YOU ALL CHEERING? HOW IS THIS IN ANYWAY A HAPPY MOMENT?" Vadam growls were feral, capturing the attention of every single Mole and Cheetah. The crowds were all in total silence wondering why Thel was enraged when this was a victory to them.

"The Cyborg may have been defeated…but I never saw any of you helping us against this menace, so why are you fools cheering?" he paced himself in front of the crowd, his fingers all curved in a Sangheili's angered state.

The Moles and Cheetahs were all looking at each other, just all now knowing what their alien commander was talking about. The Blacksmith Moles kept their mouths shut and stayed attentive.

"When he showed up I was shocked beyond all recognition…never have I seen anything that's been done by the Brutes like this, resurrecting one of my comrades then turning him against me and so many others that knew him!" he went to go pick up his receded energy handle, at least a metre away from Shin's body…though as he walked away from it, a twitch each finger on his left hand was brought up, nobody saw it.

"The ones who fought him, Spyro, Cynder, Darst and even Sparx were fighting for their lives against the more violent yet precise enemy, one that was able to pinpoint their tactics and always turn the tables against them…AND VENTOR? HE DIDN'T EVEN GET THE CHANCE TO FIGHT BACK BEFORE HE TAKEN FROM US! AND ALL OF YOU THINK THIS IS A TOTAL VICTORY?" Arbiter obtained a brutal headache from his anger combined with his yelling, but he wasn't going to stop until he's screwed this into every single skull in front of him.

Cynder, although her eyes were closed again with her head tucked under Spyro's, was still listening in to what the Arbiter was shouting. It may have been no concern for her, but just sensing the anger in his voice was just the reason for her to be concerned. The Hunters and Grunts took great notice as well, even Sarvasu and Tetrestu, followed by Veartra and Tesk were hearing their former Sangheili shipmaster as they used a make-shift stretcher using nothing but two bamboo sticks and intertwined leaves at the bottom to carry Ventor to the Infirmary, as a casualty of this battle.

"I know that we're not going to defeat Magnaruckus without suffering immense casualties…but for every Sangheili I see die makes me regret crashing on this planet, because there are so many lives at stake when so much has already been lost…there are barely any happy moments that happen within these walls, I truly am sorry, but this is not one of them…the Cyborg has weakened us all and the Apes have already exhausted some of our defences so this is in no way a victory for us, but a defeat…Magnaruckus got what he wanted out of this…a worn out resistance…".

The Moles understood their dire situation at this very moment. The Chieftain's army hasn't arrived yet and already they've lost some mole-power within their ranks. The same goes with the Cheetahs, they too have suffered moderate losses and even Hunter had received some battle scars too. If Prowlus was killed in action, every Cheetah would be in disarray.

Thel stepped past the Cyborg's body, unbeknownst to him that it's red eye switched on…and the organic eye taken up its original colour when Shin was alive. The fingers twitched erratically every 2 seconds, still not spotted by anyone. They were all too busy chatting amongst themselves.

Spyro on the other hand, whilst still shedding heart grieving tears, used the soft flaps on his wings to carefully lift up Sparx from the cobblestones. He gently wrapped the tip of his right wing around the dragonfly to cover him up, while his left wing maintained support under them both. Cynder opened her eyes and watched the purple dragon attempt to hold his emotions back, but his emotions has already given way.

"What are we going to do with him…?" she asked Spyro, devoted to helping him in any way she could.

He took a moment to stare at the wings that covered Sparx. Memories were still flooding in, unable to be contained because of the bond that he and Spyro shared, one that could never be broken. Barely able to control his words, Spyro pulled his up a few inches, answering his partner's question.

"I didn't even have time to say goodbye Cynder...he deserves a proper burial…stay here, I'll go and… (Sobs)" Spyro couldn't even finish his sentence. His heart skipped a couple of beats every single minute. Noticing that Spyro mentioned only himself in those words, the dragoness lifted her head back up from resting it under his jaw.

"Wait, you don't want me to come with you?" she ached inside, wondering why he didn't her with him.

Spyro, hesitantly after a few seconds, then answered; "You're hurt, you need to get some rest before the Brutes arrive. I promise I won't be long…" Spyro's amethyst eyes were shut completely, not willing to turn his head back to Cynder, "If something happens to you then Sparx's sacrifice will be for nothing…" he reminded Cynder that he chose her over Sparx. If it was vice versa, he would be still alive and Cynder would be forever lost. Sparx knew of their relationship and very well knew the consequences if Cynder was to be killed. The purple dragon would never be the same again.

But Cynder thought on the other hand…will Spyro still be the same as he always was, even after the loss of Sparx? The dragoness can only think of the emotional impact it's going to have on the rest of his life. She felt emotionally empty inside as Spyro quietly walked away from the area, leaving the crowds, the former battle zone, and Cynder. She stood all alone as Thel talked to the crowds.

"I'm sorry Spyro…I really am…" she lowered her head in shame, blaming herself for Sparx's death, "Even when I do good deeds…I still get people closest to me killed. Curse my life…curse all that I've done" she though in her mind, making sure nobody would catch of glimpse of her crying as she promised herself wouldn't ever again. But was she really able to resist crying of Sparx? Being a close friend to him, this would be excluded from her promise, "I said this before, I'm not a hatchling…but I'm also not a hard rock".

As Darst walked through the crowds with the Hunter clearing the path, getting Moles to move out of the way. They politely stepped back, even though some had to be somewhat forcefully pushed back with the arm cannons and shields.

Thel watched them move through the Moles, going towards the Infirmary, which gave Thel another chance to speak to the Mole lances, "I know you're all exhausted and tired…but anyone who isn't injured needs to re-arm themselves and prepare for the next wave. We need look outs, alarm signals, something that can put us on full combat readiness. In the meantime, people who need medical treatment must wait around for your doctors to arrive…otherwise we'll never be able to put up a decent fight against the Jiralhanae" Vadam knows the Brutes have the advantage as of right now. Whilst the resistance needs to patch each other up, the Brutes could walk through the front door whenever they wanted to. It all came down to the many troops and the morale they still kept, and that recent speech Thel made would've not helped at all.

The Blacksmith leader looked behind the Arbiter, seeing the twitches of the Cyborg's fingers, and then immediately, the hands started moving. The black armoured Mole alerted everyone by the sound of his voice.

"THAT MONSTER ISN'T DEAD YET!" he pointed at Shin, who was moving its arms and neck around. Thel spun quickly and backed up with shock.

Cynder lifted her head up and turned her body around, full attention to the revival of the Cyborg, "What did that anomaly even do?" she started panicking, becoming afraid and frightened. As the Moles were startled, they raised their weapons in case the machine started attacking again.

The Cyborg slowly started getting back up, with Thel standing just a couple of metres in front of it. Arby was about to relinquish his sword in hand once again to defend himself. However, as it stood back upright, it didn't bother attacking the Arbiter that was in full melee range. It only looked at its hands and its half mechanical/half Sangheili body and armor.

Cynder raised her left brow…the Cyborg wasn't as ruthless as it was before. To her, it looked more or less confused. What did this mean though?

"How are you still alive you mechanical freak! An anomaly came out of nowhere and disabled you!" Vadam wasn't going to play with the machine anymore, already seeing its full potential. All Thel got back was a synthesized voice a former friend he watched die a couple of days ago…

"Wait Arbiter! I don't want to attack you" Shin spoke calmly, hoping Vadam would see past what happened recently just for a few seconds. While it was mechanised to an extent, that voice was still the very same voice Thel had heard once before. Arby's eye slits thinned in heart-pumping fear, with a sense of inner joy.

Moles were dazzled and paralysed, wondering what the Cyborg just spoke. It usually made death threats ear-piercing screams but this was a whole different Cyborg Shin right off the bat. Cynder was beyond amazed about who just came back from the dead, but Thel…Thel was still dumbstruck.

"S-Shin?...Is that…is that really you?" he carefully asked the Cyborg, cautiously responding back.

A simple response came back from the former Cyborg menace, "Yes Arbiter…I'm back from the dead".

**I'm getting back into the perks of writing this story again! :3 College is becoming easier to handle now with these assignments being ticked down one by one, going to be a good break at the 8****th**** of November though, that's when we we're finished. Anyways, I hope this has been a nice chapter, take care ^^**

**You have any questions you guys want to ask, let me know :3**

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	66. An Uneasy Return

**I'll be surprised if anyone likes this chapter, its mostly conversational in this, but I hope it was worth the wait. Apologies on that note because my Microsoft word acted so bloody buggy that it wouldn't work! Fortunately I installed a 2007 version of it from College and it works pretty much in the same category as 2010 did, so crisis averted. Anyways, I hope you's enjoy Order 66-I mean…Chapter 66 sorry ^^;**

**Oh BTW, I hope others like what I did for the cover picture.**

Thel was frozen where he stood, glaring at a reformed Shin, feeling both hearts pump vigorously inside his chest. Tarscar was now talking to him, not fighting him, not threatening him, not attempting to kill him. Just…talking to the Arbiter.

"How in this reality Shin?…how did…what did you…" Thel was in such awe but still in total heartache to see his formerly dead ship navigator standing in front of him, putting the cybernetic enhancements, albeit Brute made cybernetic enhancements, being put to better use.

Shin looked around him, seeing a stunned, frightened crowd of Moles and Cheetahs armed, ready to defend themselves for a supposed next attack by the Cyborg. After watching what happened through the pool, he fully understood their defensive nature. He was a little irritated they didn't put up a furious defence against the Cyborg at first, but then again his body might've been a little too damaged to return back to if they did attack, thought Shin.

"This is indeed…an interesting time" the blue armoured minor, now a Cyborg warrior didn't know what to say. While he's only been 'dead' for just a couple of days, it felt like an entire lifetime had gone by. He looked over Vadam's shoulder to see the injured Darst and the two Grunts come from the crowds to finally reunite with their comrade, without being stabbed in the stomach by a Spiker or energy blade. Kino still held pressure on his open wound.

"Shin…is that really you?" those were Kino's first words to his brother in arms since he left Warfang. Thel stepped aside, turning to his Zealot.

Shin stepped back from the sight his terrifying killer Cyborg form had left behind. He knew Darst's wound would be pure horror to look at, but he didn't think it was that bad. Tarscar waited too long to return and now many have paid up for his consequences, especially his closest friends and allies.

He looked up to Darst's face with shame, "I'm back in my body Darst, you won't have to fear the killing machine that formerly hosted this body…but I wish the transition was faster so that I was able to avert almost everything that happened here...I came too late to save the few that suffered" he felt grief inside within his half elite/half cyborg body from the recent fight after seeing both Sparx and Ventor lose their live.

Were they really worth the sacrifice just to bring him back to reality? Was there actually some way to avert all this? These questions were starting to haunt him now. However long this will affect him, he must be careful what he says to Spyro and the other Elites now. His body is technically the murderer in all this.

Darst caught him off his mind, "Transition? What are you-" Kino was immediately cut off by cheering Grunts, absolutely ecstatic over the real Shin's return by running towards him.

"SHIN!" both Jabjab and Yapflop shouted with joy, grabbing onto his legs like two toddlers and their father who has just returned home.

Shin's one eye widened whilst the red eye didn't move an inch but he only needed his true sight, though now cut in half with a red HUD board on the left side, to see that the Grunts have absolutely missed their best Sangheili friend.

"Yapflop, Jabjab! You two haven't changed since I died…which is quite unfortunate because I was hoping you two would have just matured a tiny bit" he wasn't surprised they were still acting as they always were before his untimely death by the many Spikers and Brutes.

Jabjab looked up at Shin, "I was always the mature one out of the both of us thank you very much!" he sounded a bit offended by what Tarscar had said. Yapflop on the other hand still kept his grasp on Shin's leg, just absolutely overjoyed by his return.

Shin chuckled inside his throat, "Maybe, but you still retain some of his antics with you" he attempted to shed light on the little green armoured Grunt by petting his head. All Jabjab responded with was an irritated groan.

Darst ignored the presence of the Unggoy and averted back to what he was originally saying before, "Shin, this is important!" he begun to grow impatient from learning the truth of Shin's return. Tarscar immediately stood attentive in front of the Zealot, "How in this galaxy were you able to return to the afterlife? Thel told me you died in the field of battle against the Jiralhanae!" this important question was what bugged Darst so much, right next to his wound which needed medical treatment very soon.

Both Jabjab and Yapflop let go of Shin's legs to hear the tale, looking straight up at the obviously taller Sangheili, "Yeah Shin! How did you do it? Can you teach me for when I die?" Yapflop squeaked excitedly but Thel could only shake his head, "I think that's out of the question for now Yapflop…" he looked down to the now thoroughly disappointed orange Grunt.

Shin lowered his head, pondering the thoughts of his next words. Ignitus clearly said to him that Spyro was to never be able to learn of the new Chronicler's existence. The worst part was if he told Cynder, no matter what he would say to her, the black dragoness would eventually let the purple dragon know. Whilst Darst and Thel would no doubt be able to keep it a secret, Jabjab and Yapflop would reveal everything before seconds would fly by the moment he told them.

He needed to tell the two privately, and make sure only them 3 would be able to learn the full details of his return, "Now wouldn't be the best time to tell secrets Darst. There are lots of Moles around here and any of them would be listening in…" any of the Furballs around here could let loose the news of Ignitus's true fate and would most definitely be the only thing on Spyro's mind. After Sparx's death, Ignitus is the last thing that needs to occupy him if the purple dragon was to fully concentrate on the approaching fight.

"Secrets? What kind of sick joke is this Shin! You just came to lif-ARGH!...Ung, this is really starting to get to me…" Darst made sudden moves in response Tarscar's inability to unveil his return, causing him to groan from the sharp pain made by the Spiker blades.

Thel signalled the two Grunts to help Kino back to the Infirmary, the immediate medical attention was need if he was to fight again, "Yapflop, Jabjab, take to the Mole doctors and get him sorted. Time is of the essence" he pointed to the both them, giving them their orders.

"Uh…yes Arbiter" Jabjab nodded his little head. He waved bye to Shin, as did Yapflop, and clasped their little clawed hands onto Darst right one, tugging it to pull him towards the Hunters that were impatient to take their leader back to the medics of Warfang.

Thel, glaring at them, shifted his eyes to the silent Cyborg Shin. His head curved back around with the breeze hitting his neck. The noticeable changes of Shin's appearance couldn't leave his sight. The yellow lights on his chest armor, combined with the complete replacement of his right arm, brought troublesome thoughts. His left red eye looked pure evil, but that was now a former of what was once before. Only his imagination could tell what Shin had inside him.

"So…how does it feel?" Vadam referred to the machines inside Shin's body and his cybernetic enhancements in general.

Shin raised his right arm, taking a good look of what was there before. No more would he be able to normally hold a weapon ever again, even if it was a replica of his original limb.

"It's not a good feeling Arbiter…I can hear it all inside me; the metal rubbing around inside me, the plasma running through this…new heart of mine…combined with my blood it's very painful, something you'd never want to experience" Tarscar felt as if he was a husk of his own body. Organs mixed with machinery…not a good combination.

"But it's keeping you alive for the most part. It can't be the worst pain you felt in a long time" Arby tried to soothe the experience of his new body with words, words were nonetheless going to cut it this time.

"I'm not sure if I even feel alive anymore…I feel like what Magnaruckus was attempting to go for; a sentient machine capable of mass murder…and for the most part he was successful" Shin lowered his head in shame, knowing he wasn't a true Sangheili anymore. Organs and body parts; replaced by technology…what better definition was there for the Cyborg Shin?

"What about when the Brutes were massacring you back at the meadows? What did that feel like?" Arbiter could still remember that moment, the many spikes that were fired from their weapons that had their triggers pulled by their owners…a volley of sharp objects impaled Shin's torso, finishing the minor off.

All he could remember was the images of what flashed before his eyes: The War against the Covenant and the Flood, the homeworld of Sangehilios, the time he has spent of this world…the female elite he was comforting. Then he just remembered; his partner was back on Sangehilios awaiting his return. As he stared at his cybernetic components, he could imagine her reaction to his…new persona.

"Thel…is it ok if I told you something secret?"

The Sangheili in silver armor raised an eyebrow, "What secret is this?" he responded with such kind gesture.

Shin's breathing was somewhat heavy. The cyborg felt he wasn't ready to reveal his most kept hidden fact, but if he were to fully concentrate on the battle ahead his mind must be cleared of all obstructions, and this was one of them.

He clasped his palms together, sensing the embarrassment well up in him, "I have someone waiting for me back on Sangehilios…an um…partner…" Shin couldn't suck in the gut to call her another more fitting word for the Elite waiting for him, "she's been hoping for my return. That was 5 years ago" he felt something heavy in his throat. He couldn't bear the thought of losing her and even if he was able to return home to her, the reaction would be too unimaginable.

Vadam's mandibles twitched, an expression of doubt. As much as he wants to keep the morale of his friends and associates up, 5 years is a long time. And since Sangehilios would most definitely hear the news about the Great Schism and the Covenant's collapse, it may have to be hard on Shin's partner.

He didn't want to break it to Tarscar like this, especially now that he's returned…unexpectedly like this…but this was no time for debate, so Vadam shook his head and glared at the Cyborg, "I hate to dishearten you like this" he took one step closer to Shin, "But I can't let this obstruct your mind when Magnaruckus returns with the full might of his people, especially now that you've re-joined us in our great time of need. I'm even hoping Spyro and Cynder would lay their relationship down for the time being, they too need to be concentrating on this fight. Hold onto hope for now Shin, she may take you back still…"

Shin looked and sighed heavily. His lungs were supported by the machines inside of him, covering holes where the spikes have penetrated. Without those, he would've died much before he was re-awakened back aboard the downed and heavily damaged Battlecruiser.

"I know Arbiter…it's just these enhancements, these body replacements, have changed not only my physical state, but my mentality as well…I'm not the same navigator you saw me as before, and I can never revert back to my old state. I'm beyond repair. Am I still Sangheili? Even with all this stuck to my vital organs?" Shin asked.

In truth, the Arbiter didn't know how to respond to that. Shin is now more of a capable fighter than ever, but his soul was trapped inside the husk of a former navigator of the Shadow. It completely baffled Thel that, whilst he has returned to the fight against the Jiralhanae, he wasn't what he used to be.

Now ignoring Shin's new look, he rested his right hand on Tarscar's left shoulder, ensuring the Cyborg all is well, "We are in a tough time Shin…your return has filled a gap in our defence, a defence that we so desperately need to patch up. Want to feel like a true Sangheili again? Prove it to me by killing as many Brutes as possible…make sure they never accomplish what they have set out to do here, in this Dragon city of Warfang" Thel took up a simple smile, glad to have his friend back. He took his hand off Shin's shoulder and held it back at his side, knowing he has uplifted the Cyborg's spirit.

Shin, whilst barely able to put up a decent happy face back, nodded his head. He was certainly happy to be under the Arbiter's command again, "I promise to not let you down Arbiter...it's good to be with reality once again" a tiny smile was seemingly put up, as Vadam noticed.

"Welcome back navigator" Thel chuckled.

Cynder on the other hand was broken outside and inside as she limped back to the medical tent. She continually looked back towards the way Spyro left the area, the corner of a damaged building with the window bricks torn outs and the rooftops corners completely blown off my Phantom fire. She hoped Spyro would just come back, but the dragoness was simply lying to herself even if she knew that.

With emerald eyes pointing towards Clin's Infirmary, she moved on, limping her bandaged but blood seeping leg in hopes the Mole doctor had any red crystals left if she was to be ready for the next wave, a wave filled with blood-thirsty Jiralhanae.

Clin ran out from the covers of his Infirmary, knowing that all of his 'special patients' have not arrived yet. As Cynder looked up towards the entrance, spotting the Mole as he sprinted towards her.

"Miss! Thank the ancestors you're alright, I'm gathering you and all of your friends into one room. If I can do that, my colleagues can concentrate on helping other wounded warriors. Darst and Hunter are already in there as well as those Elites. Where's Spyro and the Arbiter?" Clin desperately desired them this instant as the sun continued to rise.

Cynder looked back at Thel and Shin as they talked, weakly responding to his question, "Thel's over there talking to Shin…but Spyro…" she turned away from Vadam and dropped her head towards the cobblestone with a broken spirit.

Clin sighed heavily and shook his head, "If he isn't here Cynder then I can't help him, please go down the back room and meet up with the Elites. I'll grab Thel and…" his eyes widened at the sight of Shin's new stature, dropping him bottom jaw with shock, "I uhh…I'll…ask later about our…newest guest" Clin helped Cynder into the tent, skipping her front left leg to avoid the sharp gapped pain, even if she could still very well feel it.

Shin noticed the dragoness going inside the tent with Clin, much to his agreement that they were running out of time and they too needed to prepare themselves, "I think it's time we got inside the tent Arbiter, you're not looking so good…how did you get stitches on your chest?" Tarscar had stated his opinion of Thel's battle damage, seeing black marks over his armor, a few purple scars on his skin from sliding and being knocked back by enemies and faintly seeing the stitches on his chest through the very same split openings in his armor.

He could vaguely remember how he got them, even if Tarscar spent %70 of his time as a ghost looking through the pool of visions, but the injury, from the looks of it, deemed itself very fatal. It's such a surprise Thel has taken this much punishment and has still been able to fight another day.

Vadam rested left hand on his fragile front end, forgetting he had that. "It was…back from the Shadow of Intent's crash site…I think it would be in our best nature for us to cut the chatter Tarscar, there's going to be a lot of speculation on you and the Brutes…especially since that Cyborg body of yours killed Ventor…" Thel frowned at his statement, turning around and taking steps forward towards the tent, leaving a Cyborg Shin to content with that sentence.

He stared his mechanically replaced arm, seeing his reflection from the shine of the metal, "…He should be alive instead of me then…" he sighed heavily and followed onwards behind Vadam, unprepared for the reaction he's inevitably about to receive.

Inside the Infirmary, at the end of the hall, the 4 Elites were arguing over a potentially dangerous threat…a claim made by Sarvasu.

"STOP BEING SUCH A FOOL TESK! IT KILLED OUR CAPTAIN IN COLD BLOOD AND YOU'RE ACTUALLY GOING TO WELCOME IT INTO OUR RESISTANCE?" Sarvasu shouted in the face of the younger and inexperienced Sangheili, absolutely livid about idea of having the Cyborg on their side after what just happened.

"I'm not welcoming it Sarv, I'm only saying we should at least accept him back into our forces, with the Captain gone we need someone to take his place! I know this hard on all of us but-" Tesk tried to finish his sentence but Sarvasu stomped his left foot on the ground to halt him.

"That…'thing'…will never replace the Captain! DON'T YOU EVER SAY THAT AGAIN!" He pushed Tesk back into Veartra, colliding with her. Fortunately, neither of them fell of their feet.

Tetrestu, the formerly silent Sangheili, decided that he needed to intervene for that unneeded act, "SARVASU! That's too far, this has been a devastating and costly blow to us all but violence towards Tesk is absolutely out of the question! Do that again and we'll need to restrain you!" Tet growled angrily at his comrade, hearing a faint snarl in his voice.

"Who died and made you the leader of this fight Tet? I'm only speaking the truth here, that thing's a monster and we have to kill, threat or no threat, it's not even Sangheili anymore!" Sarv pointed directly at Tet's face, rudely as he possibly could.

Veartra was able to catch Tesk from a supposed fall from the push, standing him back on his feet, "Are you ok Tesk?" she was concerned for the Locust driver, knowing he's the reason she's still alive now, saving her from the Phantom back at the war-bell tower.

Tesk immediately received red flushing on the bases of his mandibles, seeing Veartra holding onto his left shoulder and right arm. He's never been able to get this close to her, in touching distance like this even. All he could do is accept her kind and caring help for now, he didn't want to take any chances to ruin this moment.

He cleared his throat and hoped to gods his blushing has been removed; "Thanks Veartra…I'm all right" he glared back at her with smile. She even smiled back at him, something she barely did with Tesk before these events have occurred.

"In case you haven't noticed Sarv, that thing is navigator Shin Tarscar, who survived the crash and has been, for the past few days, following in Thel's footsteps ever since that day. What did we do? We sat in a crew quarters whilst they risked their lives fighting the true enemy, and Tarscar sacrificed himself so the others would be able to live! That's enough to tell me he's a true Sangheili, cybernetics or none" Tetrestu attempted with all his might to put some sense into Sarv, but he couldn't drill any of it into the militaristic Elite.

Sarv, giving in to defeat, marched inside the room behind him where Ventor's body was laying. Nothing could've been done for the Sangheili captain, it all happened too fast and the blow to him was fatal enough to kill any normal individual just, they wouldn't even need the bleed out. He would never forgive Shin, even if the Cyborg apologised a thousand times or more.

Clin was bringing Cynder to her room to be healed and patched up. Ironically it was just across the room Sarv just entered, and the one the other Elites was arguing front of. As the doctor supported her pawsteps towards it, he noticed the feud between each other. Tetrestu looked the most enraged out of the 3, though Clin wasn't able to see Sarvasu at the climax of the argument so he may misunderstand this feud until told.

Cynder, whilst her head was near to the ground, pulled her eyes up for her sight to look at the Sangheili. It was none of her concern, though by the sound of it as she and Clin got closer to them, sounded serious and may prove fatal in the field of battle.

"He is such a fool! He can't simply blame it on an Elite who didn't have free will at the time, controlled by the darkness that was the Jiralhanae! Ngrr!" Tet slammed his right fist in the palm of his left hand. Veartra though had a different statement, albeit it wasn't on Sarv's side to Tet's relief.

"Of course it isn't right Tet, but right now we're stranded on what we've got. I miss the Captain as much as anyone else within our group, and I second Sarvasu's thoughts that we need to give the Jiralhanae what they deserve. But taking it out on each other isn't going to do a thing! You two need to put aside your differences and work together, otherwise this bickering between you two is going to get us all killed!" she hissed at Tet, feeling the anger well within her, not pointing at Sarv but Tet as well for accommodating Sarv to this somewhat feral state.

"Hrmm…I'll deal with this in a minute…in the meantime dear, I'm getting you back to your full strength. I need Spyro and Sparx in here immediately as, I watched them two fight off that Cyborg and I'm sure both sides of the spectrum received a beating or two…" Clin was completely unaware about Sparx's fate, and as they both entered the room and Clin closed the white curtain material behind them, she looked up at him.

"Sparx is gone Clin…he's...gone forever…" she couldn't help but lose another couple of tears from her from each eye, barely able to contain herself from going all out like at the Shadow of Intent, when it almost became Spyro's case. Clin's bottom jaw dropped in shock, now knowing why Spyro wasn't with Cynder in the first place.

He helped the sorrow filled dragoness onto a white medical bed as he went for a stool to stand on and a metal bucket of red crystals, only letting loose a heavy sigh, "I'm extremely sorry for your Cynder…I didn't think…" there were no words for him to respond to this, only going with what he said.

She laid her head onto the pillow, as one tear overlapped her helmet and landed on soft furniture, "It's not me you should be saying that too…Spyro was so attached to him…he was more devastated than I will ever be at this…" she felt Clin's paws touch her scales as he pulled pieces of her fore leg armor away, especially the one with a large bandage around where the Ape at the Blacksmith's landed a spiker projectile on her.

Clin stared into her left eye as he unclipped the helmet under her chin, "But you too were attached to Sparx, Miss…more than you know" he slowly pulled it off her head, looking at its markings the Moles have made, accurately representing the markings of what the Arbiter wore.

Cynder lifted her head slightly, looking at the Mole doctor, "But Clin…I was the one arguing with him all the time…I'm the one who pulled Spyro from him most of the time, and I almost killed them both when Malefor had control of me…for all I know, Sparx died hating me…he especially despised my relationship with Spyro…" Her eyelids closed heavily, unable to lift them up after that sentence.

She could still remember all those pointless wise-cracks at each other, the random bickering between each other during and after the war. Clin turned to her as he took hold of a healing crystal and placed it at her forehead.

"That's not true my dear. If he really did hate you in such a way, why did he sacrifice himself? And why are you still here?" He kept it steady at her forehead, where her dark markings were as it started to melt and enter in the very microscopic cracks between her scales.

She could easily feel the energy that entered her mind and body from the crystal, "What do you mean?" she was wondering what Clin was talking about, if he never saw the events that transpired, why say such a thing.

"What I mean is Miss, the things that happened out there was maybe because of what Sparx did, and the reason why your still here. I was never out there at the time, treating the wounded and whatnot, but Sparx as I saw him was never the one to keep such a grudge against one individual, especially you" he let go of the crystal and started to carefully unwrap the bandage on her front left leg, observing a large blood mark at the front and back.

Cynder kept her head steady as the crystal was almost fully dissipated, bringing some of her strength back…but not all, and she still felt weak is most parts of her body, specifically the legs, "When we were out there fighting…what used to be Shin…he grabbed hold and me and was ready to kill me with Thel's Energy sword…I didn't receive any of Spyro's help after Sparx was crushed by that that thing in its hand…"

"And because of that, Spyro tendered to Sparx instead of aiding your defence against the Cyborg?" Clin was almost finished with the unwrapping.

"Yes…I don't blame him either…Sparx was more susceptible to being injured than everyone of us combined…and when I was grabbed, I thought I was done for…the only thought I had left in me was that I hoped Spyro and Sparx were able to carry on the fight without me…but instead Spyro saved me and left Sparx to…I can't say anymore about that" Cynder dug her head into the pillow, trying to relish in its warmth, but it's just not enough for her.

"Then my only conclusion is that Sparx knew the love between you and Spyro was growing with each day, and he didn't have any power to stop it…and that moment just before you were grabbed by Shin, I think that glowing dragonfly just didn't want to stop it anymore, he wanted it to continue…and the only way it was going to continue if Spyro saved your life, leaving Sparx…I can't imagine what was running through Spyro's mind at that point" Clin finally unwrapped all of the blood covered bandage to find a piece of armor, and what that armor was surrounding was a gaping hole through Cynder's leg. He almost upchucked just from the sight of it.

"This is a doozy…geez, the weapons those Brutes create are just insane…this is going to hurt Cynder, for sure…" he took two crystals and placed them on each side of the gap in her leg and kept them in place, knowing this is going to take much longer to heal than the rest of her body.

She felt a large amount of stinging go through her veins and nerves, grinding down her teeth in severe pain, exhuming a loud moan. Still, she concentrated hard on what Clin said. Was this true? Did Sparx really demand Spyro to go save her instead of staying in his brother's care, and if this was the case, was the cost worth it? Was she really worth Sparx's life?

Clin began to worry as he haven't heard a response from the dragoness in 3 minutes since his last sentence, "Are you ok dear?" he turned his head towards hers, which was still laying into the pillow.

Her front right paw extended 3 sharp claws and scrapped them against the pillow in hurt and loss, for it wasn't the pain of the healing process causing the pain…but it was Sparx's sacrifice that collapsed her spirit.

"I treated him wrongly all this time!" she cried, "During the war's last days, throughout this conflict, I have been sideswiping him every time…I don't deserve a second chance Clin, not after the negativity I've thrown at Sparx…I was never able to give him enough respect for his death to save me" she dug her face into the pillow, hoping it would lessen the noise she made when she was shedding devastated tears and slightly wetting the outside of it.

Clin desperately wanted to help her, no matter what the time and situation came to pass, but he couldn't bring himself to make her bear more of his words that would lead her further down the path of sorrow. All he could do was sigh deeply, holding the crystals against Cynder's wound and let the dragoness go within her own mind and thoughts. He knew how much this meant to her and he just couldn't bring up the courage to say another sentence.

At the same time, Thel and Shin walked through the entrance of the Infirmary and spotted the 3 Elites at the end of the hallway. Along the way, they noticed many injured Moles and Cheetahs on the sides, sitting on benches and medical beds made out of wood, mattress and pillows. There was small patches of dark red blood on some those beds, revealing just how much damage and death the Apes created. There weren't any words for how many sheet covered bodies out the front that have been laid out in rows.

"I've seen aftermaths like this before Thel…but we've spent enough time in this city to converse with others in such well mannered talks…seeing so many bodies and wounded like this is just…" Shin looked away from a Mole duo, which has been severely hurt beyond repair; their fur on their arms torn off, blood trickling down their side, and even plasma burns around the side of their necks. For the sake of their lives, they will be sent to the back of the city, considered unworthy to fight against the next wave.

Thel heaved in a heavy breathe of air though his mouth, responding such a low monotone, "This will only get worst Shin…they've struck us a heavy blow, in terms of both warriors and building cover, it was too costly. When the Apes were defeated…it was more of a defeat then a victory in my eyes" Vadam shook his head, too settled on the thoughts of the carnage around them.

Shin rejected that statement, "If it were truly a defeat Arbiter, there would be none left alive and the city would be burning and crumbling…obviously that didn't happen, and I believe this is just the first stepping stone towards victory. As others have said before, including you, the city must be defended no matter the cost".

Vadam stared at the half Sangheili, half machine navigator. Perhaps he was right Thel thought…

Tet, Veartra and Tesk stopped talking and stared over towards Shin's new appearance. Although they were against Sarv's accusations, they still could not get used to seeing an Elite with so many cybernetics. It was too different and too out of place for the rest of Sangheili society, reaching a point where it would be hard for Shin to get close to another one of his kind without them stepping away from him…

Shin made a low sigh as his put his head down, taking his sight of them away from himself. At the same time, Thel noticed Darst sitting on a wooden bench on the room to his right. Not only the Zealot was there but the Grunts were too, being aided by a few Moles who desperately attempted to patch Kino up. Vadam murmured in a low growl, pulling Shin inside the room just before they got to the Sangheili group….


	67. It's the thought that counts

**The story may be going at a slow pace due to all that's happened in previous chapters but please bear with me on this, we'll slowly seep back into the action soon. A bonus is also once the story is finished I'm going to meld some of the chapters together so I won't have like bloody over 70 to 80 chapters which is absurd in my opinion.**

On the horizon, the sun was about halfway through its ascensions above the plains. As a whole, it was fairly larger in view than Earth's sun, possibly due to either the star itself was larger than Sol or that the world was moderately closer to it. However, clouds far off in the distance from the approaching army of Jiralhanae would no doubt descend later on in the day.

As the enormous forces of Brutes and their ground vehicles, combined with their air superiority of Banshees and Phantoms, the whole force doesn't seem to show any sign of slowing their advance towards the city. It was astonishing how the Brutes, which barely show any discipline, were all cooperating in their vast numbers. It shows how far they were going to follow Magnaruckus deep into battle.

At the head of this savage battalion were multiple Chieftains wielding Gravity Hammers and Plasma Cannons, ordering the hoards to march on until their leader returned. With the Banshee craft zooming overhead, patrolling their ground forces, one of fighters noticed a dropship returning to their mobilization.

"The grand Chieftain has returned, stop the packs and vehicles!" the pilot called out on his radio to the one of the Jiralhanae pack leaders on the ground.

A black armoured Brute with the crimson secondary colour gave out loud, authorising barks to the rest of his pack, which immediately stopped both a small part of the crowd and 2 Wraiths and 1 Ghost. When this caught the attention of multiple Brutes around that unit, they all confined with the order as it spread out to every single foot soldier, driver and any returning Banshee and Phantom pilots overhead.

The fairly moderate amount of Chieftain second in commands all came to the front of the army, pushing the lower clad blue and bright golden Jiralhanae out of their way as the Phantom hovered in front of the group and lowered its mass closer to the ground to initiate its gravity lift.

As every chieftain from every group lined up, at least 20 to 30 of them, they watched with as the much larger Magnaruckus gradually landed on the wavering grass. The ground under the Brutes shook a little from Mag's 'graceful landing', revealing just how much muscle and weight their leader carries. That doesn't stop him from having the temptation to wipe out his enemies though.

As he traced his footsteps closer to his disciples, the behind his leadership, were all standing attentive, but their line-up, unlike Humans and Sangheili, was somewhat different. It wasn't the simple stand up straight and disciplined forming like anything seen before, it was jumbled up, smaller (yet still larger than Elites) chieftains in front of big chieftains, all snarling with a determined bloodlust for a fight. Being some of the most experienced of their kind, and fighting so many battles during the time of the Great Human-Covenant war, they were more than prepared to deal with a resistance smaller than they were.

Magnaruckus's eyes glared at his army, scanning the chieftains in front of him and the military strength they possessed behind them. It's informative for him to know that they were easily more powerful than the city's resistance in terms of technology and firepower. But the large chieftain was also able to note how dumb they were when it came to tactics…and that's one thing the Sangheili and their allies had on their side.

"My brethren…my brothers from all of Doisac…we are finally at the gates of oblivion for the Arbiter and his pesky little minions. Today will be their final battle, taking on the mighty Jiralhanae will their greatest honour. Our weapons are unmatched, our brutality is unstoppable and our divine devotion to our fallen Prophets is unbreakable!" Magnaruckus's low toned, growlish voice soared throughout his army, their response being a single roar in unison.

He further continued his speech, "I expect all enemy defiance to be crushed, to be obliterated from the face of this galaxy! Once an area has been blitzed, make sure there are no survivors! Absolutely none of them should be breathing after each push through! To obtain a victory in that primitive city though will take more than what we've done in the past though…" Magnaruckus glanced back at his chieftains. They gave a confused look, wondering what their leader meant by that last statement. This time, no unified roar happened.

"It will take the full might of our army, the mighty power of our weapons and vehicles, the air superiority of our Banshees and Phantoms to topple down these pathetic creatures and their city, ONCE AND FOR ALL!" Magnaruckus took hold of the Fist of Rukt and raised it into the air, signalling every Brute to bellow out another mighty roar.

"THESE COWARDS WILL HIDE BEHIND WALLS NO MORE!" Magnaruckus fist pumped his hammer after each threat, "TODAY…WE SHALL CRUSH THE RESISTANCE!" "ANNIHILATE THE RESISTANCE! ERADICATE THE RESISTANCE!" the unified roaring continued as Magnaruckus kept up the blazing glory of a single Brute army, "THEL VADAM SHALL FINALLY PERISH! THE SANGHEILI WILL BE BATTERED AND BLOODIED TO DEATH! THE HEADS OF THE FREAK FLYERS WILL BECOME OUR TROPHIES! AND THE REST OF THEM SHALL BE OBLITERATED FROM THE FACE OF THE GALAXY! FOR THE GLORY OF THE JIRALHANAE COVENANT!" Magnaruckus kept his iconic, one hammer in hand stance with the others raising their weapons, ranging from Gravity Hammers, Spikers, Brute Shots, Plasma Cannons, Carbines, Fuel Rod Guns and Plasma Launchers, some even had Beam Rifles.

Jikartus came down from the lift of the Phantom to reunite with his leader, having to watch the entire speech just from the side. He was possibly the only Jiralhanae who wasn't cheering like the rest of his race. In fact, it was the complete opposite; it was instead an expression of doubt…which caught Mag's scared eyes when he turned his head right towards his second in command.

"What's wrong Jikartus…why aren't you joining in the celebration of the start of this great battle?" Mag turned his entire mass around and hauled the Rukt on his back's magnetic connectors. Jikartus looked over towards the fields where the city laid ready for defence and where the sun was just finishing rising. Warfang may not have been in sight yet, but they are damn close to it.

Jikartus wasted no time getting to the point "We're waiting our troops, our resources, on a simple primitive city. The Arbiter may be of worth to kill and the other Sangheili as well…but the Drag-errm, Freak Flyers…the two we've been after; Cynder and Spyro are only young, and the other ones are adults attempting to keep their city in order. Can we instead find a way to lure out the Elites and spare the rest of the city, I mean look around Chieftain, this planet has seen years of wa-"Jikartus was immediately interrupted after Magnaruckus caught up with the…sparing of the city.

The much larger and stronger Mag stepped towards Jikartus. He didn't seem too happy with Jikky's idea…"Look at my eye Jikartus…look at what SHE has done to my being!" he pointed directly at the scar Cynder made during their previous encounter, a scar that will bear with him for the rest of his life, created by a small dragoness such as herself. All the pale gold armoured chieftain did was gulp down saliva in controlled fear from how close he was coming to be called a traitor of his kind.

"It's a scar sir, not much can be done abou-" Magnaruckus immediately cut him off again.

"EXACTLY! NOTHING CAN BE DONE ABOUT IT! CYNDER IS THE ONLY CREATURE IN THE GALAXY TO GIVE ME SUCH A WOUND, Humans didn't do it, Demons didn't do it, Sangheili didn't do it, IT WAS HER! A FREAK FLYER WE ONLY JUST DISCOVERED A FEW DAYS AGO!" Mag shouted at the top of his voice, gaining the attention of his chieftains.

Jikartus kept his mouth shut, "And I shall never let her get away with it. If I had to, I'd chase her down to the very end of the universe and kill her very slowly…and very, VERY painfully…I would kill her in front of the purple one and show him how much it hurts to be scarred for life!..." Magnaruckus eyes stared into Jikartus's soul, inspiring dread and absolute terror, especially an unquenchable thirst to kill that one dragoness.

"She has done the impossible, and in just a few days, she's become a more important target then Thel has…" Magnaruckus whispered so the other Jiralhanae couldn't hear except for Jikartus.

"I'm going to make them both suffer the most painful way possible before I rip their heads off as trophies…starting with her, then Thel, then the rest of them! And to be honest Jikartus…I have been sensing a lack of faith within my abilities…" Magnaruckus was becoming certain that his second in command was not as zealous as he was before the fighting against the inhabitants inside Warfang, growing more disturbed by this fact from the sound of his voice.

"I'm only suggesting what is best for our people Chieftain. I have no doubt that you'll destroy our enemies with swift blows but that still doesn't change the fate of a few woodlan-" once again, he was interrupted.

"We're not dealing with Woodland creatures, Secondary Chieftain Commander, we are dealing with a primitive force of ragtag individuals who defy us and our goals. Prepare your pack for combat, you're going to be sent with Phantom to the West side of the city and burn down their homes and markets, we'll severe their morale with such an attack. Take Incendiary Grenades and prove your loyalty to me Jikartus…because so far you haven't contributed much in this fight other than giving orders…" Magnaruckus shoved Jikartus out of the way to walk into the Dropship's lift.

As he went up, Jikartus thought about the situation he was in. He felt as if he betrayed the pack, betrayed the Jiralhanae with such talk. Being loyal to the Covenant cause since his birth, he'd have no choice but destroy the West area of Warfang…and burn down countless homes and resources…

Meanwhile in Warfang, as the city was rebuilding and re-organising its defences, the wounded were still being transferred to the Infirmary. The injury rate was high, but the death count exceeded even that when the rows of dead warriors continued to accumulate. As of now, ammunition was being delivered to the front city cannons and weapons are being retrieved from the dead Apes and crashed Phantoms for use against the Brute attack.

Inside the white tent however, tensions grew as the reunited Shin and company did not settle well as thought…

"You may have returned to help our cause Shin but things have changed since your death, we're setting up a rugged defence here and with a Sangheili captain to command those that are bickering outside this room, now dead…things are only getting tougher by the minute" Darst was being maintained with the use of bandages around his waist covering a large amount of stiches holding the 2 spike wounds tightly. He even took whatever medical drugs the Moles deemed necessary to numb the pain down.

"It's not my fault that the bloody captain was killed by this body, I was not in control of it until the beam hit! Why should I be treated like this after the service I've done to help creating that Locust AND supporting the rescue mission a night before?" Shin argued back to Darst.

"Shin please…" Thel shook his head with his right hand pressed against the right side of his face.

They were conversing over the pinnacle subject of how his re-occurrence would benefit the resistance. With Ventor dead, a Sangheili replacement for the squad outside was needed, but Shin wouldn't be able to fit that description due to the killer of Ventor being his Cyborg body.

Darst raised both of his hands, "I'm not saying you don't deserve to be back Tarscar, it's fantastic you've came from the world beyond and obtained such a valuable resource, those cybernetics. But the fact remains that if those 4 out there don't have a leader they'll run around like headless Unggoy looking for targets to kill on their own accord, and Brutes always fight in packs…" Darst didn't want to sit up as it would strain his injuries.

Yapflop, standing by the wall with arms crossed heard that remark, "Hey that's not nice! We die instantly when our heads get cut off" he corrected Darst, then receiving an unwelcome nudge from Jabjab, "Thanks for telling everyone what happens when we get decapitated…dumbass".

Shin ignored the Grunt's pedantic, "What does this have to do with me then? Why am I receiving blame for something THAT I DIDN'T DO?" Shin stepped right up towards the sitting Darst, bringing his face closer to the Zealot's face. Kino snarled in response, he doesn't tend to be friendly to absolutely anyone who brings their face this close under these circumstances.

"Back off Shin…I don't have time for this…" his top left mandible lifted slightly.

Thel stepped in and pushed the Cyborg away from the Zealot, getting in-between the two and halt this bickering; "That's enough! Both of you are acting out of your maturity! It's despicable, it's intolerable!" Vadam shifted his left and right towards the 2 arguing over such nonsense. Darst looked up to his leader whilst Shin simply stood there frozen stiff, he knew this pushed the Arbiter over the edge.

"I can't stand here whilst this goes on, Magnaruckus and his forces are fast approaching and you two don't give a damn about it, rather fighting over such a small controversy!" Arbiter shifted his head left toward Kino, then over to Shin at the last few words.

The silver armoured Vadam turned his body towards the crimson Elite, "Darst, the others out there have to decide for themselves. Out of them 4, they all must have consent about which is going to lead their group, which of them has the most military experience or fighting talents, as well as leadership skills to match those 2 habits. By pressuring them, you'll cause distress. Especially with Shin here". Darst lowered his head and scanned the ground.

He thought this would not help that group at all, and felt the need to take control of it himself. However, this would pull him away from the heaviest defences at the front Gates, where most of the Moles and Cheetahs depended on him for command against forces only he's faced, and his experience against Jiralhanae would prove to be invaluable for the resistance.

Darst sighed, covering his face with the palms of his hands, which told Thel he got the point, so he turned back to Tarscar full-front. "And Shin, do not take your comeback as a sign of hostility from the others within this resistance. They're only afraid of you, so only you can calm them down and show that your 100% committed to fighting the Brutes and ONLY the Brutes. Threaten others, even your own people" as Vadam pointed attention towards Darst, "And they'll consider you hostile".

Shin's eye lowered to the ground, whilst his red eye dimmed to a darker colour, showing regret over what he did. All he did was sigh with honesty and stepped away from the Arbiter and put his back against the wall, opposite to Yapflop and Jabjab and next to a desk and medical equipment.

Thel crossed his arms, "Now then, if tension towards each other is over and done with, I'm going to see how Clin is doing with Cynder's wounds…and see if he can get these stitches out of my chest" with reluctance, he rubbed his chest armor to get movement going, feeling a slight snippet of pain it rubbed against the stitches keeping his chest together, from the earlier surgery last night.

"Didn't you say the Mole doctor had to pull those out this morning? You wouldn't be combat worthy if they were still tied to your flesh" the zealot wondered about this, remembering Thel telling him and a few others about his injury over the Brute Chieftain Drektus stomping on him.

"The battle with the Apes postponed that appointment with the doctor, and I had no choice but to enter the fight with the rest of Warfang's defenders, even if I was considered not combat worthy…if any of you get the chance, have the other Sangheili come in here for a regrouping, then we'll head outside to see the Lekgolos" and with that, Thel turned and walked out of the room, which Shin and Darst turning to stare at each other.

As Thel walked out into the corridor, he immediately stepped back as 2 Moles, one in front of and carrying a stretcher and the other behind also carrying it ran past with one of their warriors shouting in pain as he laid on it. The Mole warrior was severely hurt, two spike wounds in his right thigh and one straight through his shoulder armor and right through it, coming out of the other end.

Vadam watched them go around the corner into a room where 2 other Mole doctors running into the same room, instead coming from the entrance.

A long sigh came from the Sangheili, knowing the only reason that Mole was injured in the first place was because of the encounter in orbit of this world, "What has possessed destiny to cause more harm to them?...If only I would have seen how bad their war with the dark forces really was" he could only imagine what happened before the defeat of Malefor. The fall of their villages and cities, the destruction of their very way of life…and it's very hard to think that she was formerly a part of that trail of devastation.

Speaking of her, Vadam continued down the hall, seeing his underling Sangheili turn to him as he was about to walk into the room where Clin was healing the black dragoness.

"Go to Kino's room. There will be time to mourn Ventor later…and please do not treat Shin like a pathetic jar of dirt, we all need to work together" Vadam gazed at the 3 of them, who all still were bitter over the recent loss and addition to their group of survivors. As it seemed though, although they complied with Thel's command, it wasn't Shin and Ventor they were thoroughly worried about. And that could be seen in their eyes.

Sarvasu walked out from the closed curtains that, behind them, laid Ventor's resting place at the very moment. Turning towards his comrades as they passed by Vadam, he shook his head and followed them in. Obviously, grief and anger took over Sarv's restful mind, the blood within him was boiling for revenge against the one who killed his commanding officer and once faithfully good friend…however, he knew if he attempted any threatening attack towards the Cyborg Elite, a most horrible punishment would be responded by the Arbiter, or anyone else for that matter.

As he kept his attention to Sarv, swerving his head around, he wondered how this would affect the morale of every Elite besides him. Connectively, they all shared a common interest to bring down Magnaruckus and his forces. Unfortunately, one corrupted mind, Sarv being the prime example, can literally take a toll on the rest of the Elites. They were at the very best a squad, and losing one member can drastically affect the other's mental and emotional state, a domino effect in reality.

Thel grunted, unable to dwell on it anymore. When Sarv left his eyes, he turned his attention back to the room in front of him and entered, where his eyes a resting but absolutely devastated Cynder. Although the wounds were healing, her blood on the bed left much to be desired, for it was already drying up and staining the bed.

Clin sat on a stool with arms crossed and head against the wall of the tent, he's done all he could for the dragoness, letting time do the rest. But even he could not resist what he and the dragoness were talking about earlier. He looked up at Thel as he passed through the entrance.

"She's physically fine Thel, the crystals will shortly close up her injuries and she'll be fine in no time…nothing to worry about" Clin however failed to mention why Cynder's eyes were filled with tears.

"Yes, physically…but her emotions do not put me at ease. What happened to her?" Arbiter demanded to know why his closest and dearest friend in all of his life is still in such a state he couldn't ignore. Clin lowered his head back down, shutting his eyes and shaking his head.

"I can't put it into a sentence. What she said to me was something I can't figure out…I hope you could ask her that yourself…"

Clin barely made any movement, keeping that same pose with his arms crossed. Arbiter knew something wasn't right. The loss of Sparx may have greatly affected her then he once thought. The tension between the two, especially with Spyro mixed in the middle, was something extremely problematic…but was that what had affected the dragoness, thought Thel.

He pulled a classily made wooden chair over next to Cynder's bed for him to get more personal with her, face to face and up close.

"Cynder…look at me please" Thel sat and gazed at her grieving face. Her head throbbed from her crying, unable to answer him in such a state she was in, but Thel was never the one to easily give up. He moved forward even closer, almost to the point where he was almost touching her face with his.

"Cynder, I can't help you if you don't talk to me, leaving me in the dark like this doesn't help the situation" his own expression showed him he felt hurt inside, seeing the dragoness almost ignore his presence like this…he couldn't take the ache that shifted between his two hearts, because she didn't want to talk to him.

"Don't call this…a situation Thel…" her eyes opened with another tear dropping from her right eye as she put in the strength to lift her head up, "You make it sound as if a fight was happening before us".

Thel pulled his head back, slightly arching his neck. His lungs held in a sigh of relief, "Then what should I call this exactly? A problem? An occurrence?" He tilted his head slightly left.

Cynder gazed into his eyes, mentally attempting to slap these next few words in his mind and leaving it as is, "…Personal…" she shuffled mildly to bring her left wing over. Along the wing membrane, between the scythe blade she had there and the bone connecting to the rest of her spine, a slightly long red scratch is shown, possibly from when she was thrown around during the battle against Cyborg Shin.

She licked the wound up, which helped stop any infection from trying to get into her blood and give her more harm than she already had. Thel watched her lick the wing, he felt at some ease just simply watching the dragoness gracefully and quietly treat herself. It just seemed…very peaceful. However, he responded to her finally.

"You're torn up about Sparx aren't you..." Thel hit the final nail on the coffin. Cynder stopped licking her wound and laid her head sideways on the pillow, "I shouldn't be here Thel…he sacrificed himself to convince Spyro to save me. What is my life worth when others die around me just to simply delay my own demise? It's happened a few too many times…Even Spyro has risked his life to save me" she dug herself into the pillow even more to the point where she sunk herself in.

The Arbiter traced his eyes around the room, looking for reasons to counter her accusations, "Sparx did what he deemed necessary for both you and Spyro. I'm sure Clin here may have already told you this, but the Dragonfly may have known that if he were to die as well as you, Spyro's life may have just ended there...even if he didn't suggest saving you, I highly doubt it, Sparx would inevitably die from his injuries…And even then…I should be the one to take the blame…"

Suddenly Cynder's eyes widened, looking up to what she just heard, "Wh-what do you mean?..." she asked scarcely, nervous to hear his answer.

"Remember when I was frozen stiff at Shin's new appearance? I felt truly afraid to see what had become of him…the machinery, the strength he possessed, the tactics he used against you, Spyro and Kino…and then Sparx" he lowered his head in total shame, feeling the heavy guilt on his shoulders and a rain of dishonour fall upon him, "He distracted Shin, stopping him from coming towards me when I didn't properly defend myself".

Clin suddenly looked up in surprise. He couldn't believe that Thel almost got himself killed all because he couldn't bring up his senses at that moment to show it wasn't really Shin at the time.

Meanwhile, Cynder realized he was right…however, it doesn't bring her relief, it just brought confusion. "There's no excuse for this one. If there is any blame to be thrown around here, it might as well be shifted to me. It's my fault" Vadam wasn't going to let the dragoness wreck herself once again. For this day, he felt it was time to take it as it were…

"Maybe you should consider it as a moment of self sacrifice, Arbiter" Clin jumped off his little wooden chair, looking up and the laying Dragoness and sitting Sangheili. They both turned their attention towards him, "Remember that day when Jabjab and Yapflop arrived and Sparx put you in the face of blame for bringing the Jiralhanae here?" he asked Vadam.

"I'll never forget that day…why do you ask?" the images of those moments popped into his head, when he was insulted and irritated by Sparx. Eventually it led to Thel think so foolishly to even go over to the camp in person so he could negotiate with the Brutes, hoping to turn them away from attacking everyone inside the city in turn for his demise. Cynder couldn't forget it either; she almost lost Thel because of it Sparx's, although harshly insulting, but unintentional error.

"Sparx told me about it when Spyro and Cynder left the city to go help you. And when they did leave, he told me about it, how he wanted to come with them and tell you sorry in person. But Spyro recommended him staying here, not only for his protection and punishment, but because Cynder consistently urged against him coming along" Clin clasped onto his right wrist, simply standing before them.

Cynder couldn't help but turn away, feeling incredibly horrible knowing she was angry at the glowing dragonfly at the time. With him gone forever out of her life now, she can't simply put the past behind her.

"I regret every insult I threw at him…every harsh word…every single negative thought towards him" Cynder quietly whispered, but Thel and Clin heard every word that spoke out of her maw.

"In either case, he couldn't get over it. Even if he did apologise to Thel, he'd never get over such an event; you leaving Warfang to save everybody inside the city" Clin continued on. Vadam crossed his left eye back to Cyn, turning his head around fully. She returned with a concerned yet grateful look on her expression.

"Sparx may have known that by distracting Shin and taking his attention away from Thel, he redeemed himself from that night…I can't say for sure, but if he truly enjoyed being alongside his friends, it was a very noble and selfless act…he did it for Spyro, you and Cynder here…may he be guided by the ancestors in his journey to the afterlife" Clin concluded what could be possibly the best explanation in this time of self-sacrifice to save others. Sparx did the right thing, and in Spyro's, Cynder's and Thel's hearts and he shall never forgotten.

Thel put both his hands up to his face and wiped away whatever water attempted to come down it. He even took off his helmet to wipe around his head, dropping the metal piece to his side and leaving it there. Cynder could only sit and watch him, knowing he felt hurt on the inside, and she could easily sense that pain he received.

"Thel…" she whimpered, "You're crying…"

He immediately tried to keep his pride up by whatever was left on his face, but the light shining through the extremely small holes from the wall behind Cynder's bed shown the reflections off the sides of his mandibles.

"We've lost too much already…and Mag's forces haven't even arrived. I know I said we have to stop the Jiralhanae, no matter the cost…but then nobody who has a true spirit is ever made of rock. I've never felt like this when I lost people I knew during the Covenant war. Is it wrong to feel like this now towards people I've known only for a few days?" he looked up to her with his orange eyes, lowering his hands and glaring at her own remarkable emerald eyes.

She, smiling weakly, still shown how much he as another creature from another world, meant to her as family, "No…it's not wrong…unlike some people, you have a heart…2 in your case…" Suddenly, the instinct to protect the ones she cares for so much was shifted in, shuffling her body forward slowly and as gently as possible, she placed her forehead against Thel's and kept it in place.

As a mild reaction, the Arbiter's eyes widened considering he's never had much affection towards others, no matter whom or what they were. However, like in the Blacksmiths, he grew to enjoy the care she gave to him. It kept him calm, relaxed, and at ease, knowing she's still here to support him in these dark times.

"The harder we fight, the quicker our weapons kill, the faster the battle ends…we've come this far Thel, and we just need to push a little further…" she pulled her head back, although she hesitated to due to how much she enjoyed the comfort and contact he and she made. Whilst he continued to scan her face, she brought her tail down and with her scythe tail blade, hooked onto under his helmet and lifted it up above his knees.

The Sangheili Arbiter held it out his hands caught it as slipped off her naturally made weapon. He sighed deeply, looking down at its clean sheen on top and the rippled under-side, raising his head back to her with that smile again.

"And no matter what happens out there when we're fighting…you will always be my brother" her wings spread out and wrapped around Vadam's backside, pulling him against her chest as her head rested against his neck.

In response, he never hesitated to comfort her back by bringing his right arm around behind the central membrane of her wings and pulled her even closer to where here head rested above the left side of his chest and against the softer, more exposed neck. As it happens, he's able to look down and take a glimpse of her wounds, seeing the gap in her front left leg close up at last, only leaving a flesh wound with red markings on the front and back of it. The rest of her bloody scratches simply vanished from the effects of the crystals.

Suddenly, after a few minutes of silence and comfort, Clin cleared his throat, "I hate to interrupt a tending moment, but I need to start working out those stiches…can you move much Cynder?" the doctor walked up to the bed looking up to her, his top height was slightly under the mattress.

Her eyes opened, knowing this went on for longer than she thought. Thel pulled back his arm and himself as Cynder took her wings back, getting ready to hop off her medical bed. She felt slight pain in her front left leg as she got up and jumped down on the cobblestones. Other than that, Clin's healing had worked wonders on her, Cynder didn't have to limp to make her way to places no more and there was no bandage to restrict her movements.

"So much better…" she sighed if relief, the crystal had regenerated all the muscle, veins, a small portion of her tibia bone and the flesh. She shifted her attention towards Clin, greatly appreciating what he has done for her, "Thank you for the crystals doctor…and the talk".

"You're always welcome here Miss, anytime, any day…except during the battle for Warfang though" Clin crossed his arms in dismay. Thel became concerned as to why he said that, "What do you mean 'except during the battle'?"

Clin exhumed the oxygen inside his lungs and paced slowly across his position near the chair to the entrance of the room, "Once we've helped all the people that we possibly can, most of my staff will be moving to the back of the city for shelter for more protection, leaving the Infirmary standing. All medical equipment we can muster is going too" Clin stopped and looked at them both when Vadam started standing up and sitting on the bed Cynder left.

A low hum came from the Sangheili, "It's because the tent is somewhat close to the front gates, isn't it?" he raised his right brow slightly.

Clin nodded his head, "But that's not the only reason. I've been conspiring with the people from the Blacksmiths, they want to use the Infirmary as a point of interest of the enemy…to lure a legion of Brutes to it and quickly take them down with precise arrow shots" Clin explained the battle plan. Initially, luring a good chunk of Jiralhanae to a single open cobblestone road, with a tent in the middle along with buildings to the left and right didn't seem like the best of plans to Thel. However, if executed perfectly, it could do a good number to them.

"In my opinion, it's a good idea. Most of the contingent of Apes that attacked the city made this tent their primary target. Once the medical supplies and injured move away from the site, there's no real reason to attack the tent" suddenly, Clin pointed directly at the Arbiter, "But the Brutes don't know that" he smiled deviously, he small black with brown eyes thinned down.

"It's seems too risky though Clin…what about yourself? Are you going with your staff?" Cynder turned her body around towards Clin, away from Thel. The doctor's long nose lowered, pointing towards the cobblestones.

"No…I'm going to stay in this area for as long as I can, help the Blacksmith leader coordinate his people. When the Jiralhanae do eventually come, we're gonna hold out until we think a large number of Brutes have been killed, then we fall back towards the Library when they start overwhelming our position" Clin glared over to the dragoness, knowing this could be their final stand either at the Infirmary or the Library.

"And what happens if the Infirmary is gone and you lose your position at the Library? It's too far for you to go towards another group of warriors when the Jiralhanae air force starts setting the city ablaze" Vadam warned that no one would be able to help them when the rest of the resistance was busy fighting off other Jiralhanae hordes. It would be suicide for them all.

Clin immediately felt the heavy weight on his shoulders. Although it's a sound plan, the Brutes numbers could still possibly overwhelm them, add to that was the Banshees and Phantoms that will be bombing the city from the air. That was the resistance's largest threat at the moment; enemy aircraft.

"There's no tactical value whatsoever here and at the Library as both lead away from the Grand Atrium. If they want to ruin the resistance's will to fight, they'll destroy that as well as the back of the city. It may also signal the end of battle and the beginning of mass murder" Thel finished his sentence, concluding that Magnaruckus, if not able to personally find him, Cynder or any of the others, he'll direct his firepower towards the Grand Atrium, the largest and the most toughest structure out of everything else behind those great walls.

"If it means diverting their troops towards condemning their fates, we'll take our chances and hold out as long as we can" Clin brought his hands in front of his torso, clenching them together.

"Then…I bid you and the Blacksmith warriors' immense luck. They're adept at what they do, but against an entire pack of them…I'm not sure…" Cynder had doubts that the Moles of the Blacksmiths would hold out for so long against waves upon waves of Brutes, especially Clin and the leader…

Arbiter felt it was time to get rid of the stiches now. He rested his entire body on the bed; even if it partially soaked some of Cynder's bloody. None of out it however seemed to have marked the backside of his armor though, showing how quick the blood has dried up.

"Cynder, go and bring Spyro here. He needs to be healed of his own wounds and also has to be with the rest of us when we start planning out who has which role" He turned his long necked head towards the black dragoness. In a sudden shift of emotions, her eyes thinned and scanned the ground as if she couldn't bear to face 'him' after what he did. She has no idea on Spyro's whereabouts so how could she possibly find him with time running short.

"I'll try with every effort I have within me…and Clin, thank you again. I can't tell you how much I appreciate what you've done for us this past week…with every visit to the Infirmary I've had" and with that, she sprinted out of the room, making Spyro her main priority whilst Thel got ready to rid of these stiches.

In the meantime, the Sangheili, Unggoy and Lekgolo gathered out the front of the tent, waiting on their leader to come out of that tent. Darst saw Chief Prowlus come out of the tent, and knowing he's a friend of that one cheetah that brought himself and Shin to this city, he needed to know the tribe's situation on this current matter.

Darst still had a bandage wrapped around his abdomen, attempting to deal with whatever sharp pain he was receiving. Those Moles knew how to work on wounded…"Prowlus! Wait up" Kino caught up with the red caped baron of his tribe, turning his attention towards the relatively tall Sangheili.

"What is it you want Kino, I have urgent matters to attend to, like my OWN people…" he seemed a bit on edge due to the amount of dead that's amassed and being transported to the back of the city for mourning later, a quarter of them being Cheetah warriors. However, the Zealot did not blame him for urgent needs to take care of his people.

"How is Hunter coping with his wounds?...He was shot up by a Phantom from what I head" concern was greatly noted for Prowlus. Although they were completely different creatures, they still needed great cooperation and this was a definite step up in relationship boosting.

"Well…yes he was. One of their side shooters burnt him badly. However it seems like he's going to make somewhat of a recovery within the next hour, so that's the good news from the doctors inside" as it turned out, the good words of Prowlus seemed very bright for Hunter. Within the hour, he could make do with the medicine he's received and get back into the fight in no time. There was a problem though, the Cheetah leader mention 'the good news'…

Darst was quick to learn this; "Hang on one minute…what's the bad news then? What's wrong with him?".

Prowlus made a low monotone moan…this didn't sound too good 'Its Meadow…the Moles inside the tent notified me he's far too hurt, and getting him to recover from his injuries could take up to 1 or 2 weeks. It's possible the Supreme Brute Chieftain tortured him when they captured him…he's being moved to the back of the city along with the rest of the non-fighter worthy folks" he shook his head in despair, knowing one of his closest comrades has faced death oh so close last night, a torture by Magnaruckus would make anyone want to kill themselves.

Darst felt guilt drain his morale and made a low snort, knowing yet another comrade has to come off the battlefield. Their numbers were thinning, heavily decreasing their chances of winning. He rested a hand on the Chief's left shoulder, assuring him that they will somehow, and someway make it through this day without either dying or bowing before the Jiralhanae forces.

"Gather what forces that can fight and be ready for the next wave, they'll be arriving shortly" as soon as Kino said that, a rushing dragoness smashed through the front flaps of the tent and took flight into the sky, immediately capturing everyone's attention in that vicinity.

"She recovered quickly" Darst was surprised by her immediate take off. He remembered seeing Cynder, quite frankly, just as hurt as he was. But her Spike gap and the massive amount of blood scratches and bruises seem to have only delayed her fight with the Jiralhanae. However, he doesn't know why she even flew off like that…

"Red crystals do amazing wonders to the dragons. If only they worked for other species so we wouldn't be stuck on our death beds all the time" Prowlus commented. A low but thoughtful murmur left Kino's neck, scratching the bottom of his mandibles with his right hand.


	68. Hearts divided

As she soared through the skies of Warfang, with the sun's glistening morning shine, Cynder couldn't help but be relaxed by the sudden quietness. She was away from all the commotion and yelling by warriors and fighters desperately gathering their strength for the Jiralhanae attack. Her former wounds only left small transparent scars, which would soon turn into her own scale colour to make it even more transparent and hard to spot, unless looked carefully.

Unfortunately, she also noticed something about how fast she was flying through the sky, above the Grand Atrium sector of the city, "That's just wonderful" she spoke sarcastically, "I forgot my armor pieces I left at the tent" the dragoness moaned, seeing all of her arms and her head bare scaled. All she had covered was her neck, torso and belly, the base of her tail and the length of the tail itself. It still made her slower and heavier in the sky than usual, but without the pieces she's missing it gave a portion of her speed back.

Then, she started speaking in her mind, "I'll pick them up when I return with Spyro, he couldn't be too far…could he?..." there was still that bit of worry within her heart that the purple dragon may have done what she did yesterday, and that wasn't the greatest of experiences.

However, she dismayed the possibility of him running away. It wasn't like him to abandon everything he worked so hard for, even if his soul was completely crushed by Sparx's death. And to put pressure on Cynder, she needed to find him fast, for time was running out.

She flew over the Blacksmith and crushed market area where Tesk took on an Ape leader, as well as the tower Veartra had defended herself from a Brute Phantom. From Cynder's point of view, that tower must have collapsed later after Veartra and Tesk left its area.

And now at long last, as if it felt like a never ending search, she spotted something small and purple on the little green hill with the tree in the very middle of it, the same place Cynder and Thel had their very first talk in Warfang, before Darst set the Library on fire.

"The tree hill…it felt like forever since I sat under that…there's no doubt about it.." Cynder knew exactly why Spyro was here, not just because it has luckily been untouched by Jiralhanae dropships, but because simply put, "He's burying Sparx here".

She gracefully descended downwards towards the hill, folding back her wings and letting speed take her to the ground. As the ground came closer in view, she spread out her wings again to slow herself down and pull her backside, allowing all 4 paws to touch the cobblestones.

"Spyro…are you feeling any better?..." she didn't know what else to ask him, Cynder could not go out of her way to say 'Everyone needs to you back at the Infirmary', that wouldn't help the current situation. Unfortunately, no answer came back to her.

Spyro was sitting on his haunches, staring at the grave he had made for Sparx. He didn't have any access to tombstones or sticks for the grave itself; instead it was a small dirt mound…and all the purple dragon did was stare at it, ignoring everything else around him, including Cynder.

She started walking up the hill towards her partner, knowing she's being blocked from his attention, "I know this is very hard for you, it's just as hard it is for me to say this but…" she stopped talking, then looking down at the grass she walked on, effectively started whispering to herself, "No, that's not it…" she sighed heavily and looked back up to him, "Everyone needs you back at the tent Spyro…I need you back there".

Even with the sincere and passionate voice Cynder uses to gain Spyro's attention was not getting him to turn around. In his imagination, a stone wall surrounded the purple dragon and Sparx's grave, blocking every single line of communication to him. That was until his dragoness partner slowly grew desperate for just even one word from him.

"You know how much I hate being ignored, especially by you! Talk to me at the very least!" her voice slightly arose with each word that spat out of her maw, she understood that this was a very hard time but did it have to involve ignorance and disobedience? Finally, only but a few words came from Spyro…and they weren't all that positive…

"Leave me alone…" is all what he said, clearly a sign he didn't want anybody around him. She immediately stopped walking up to him, at least a metre away from his backside.

She wasn't stopping though, the dragoness planned to get through him one way or another, "I'm not leaving you here to mope over Sparx's grave! I'm hurt over it too, I know how the pain feels, but please, you don't need to block me out of this" she explained herself, knowing loss was simply going to be a part of this fight either way, "I know this is difficult for the both of us, but as Thel said, we have to stop the Brutes, no matter the cost-" then suddenly, a threatening tone of voice from Spyro made Cynder back up a step. He lifted his head up, staring at the tree, but not turning to face her.

"What Thel says is unjust and untrue; we don't need to recklessly throw away lives in the hopes of just stopping their advance! Is the cost going to pass the point where everyone we know and care for are going to die? Is that what Thel is attempting to say?" he argued against the Arbiter's supposed motives. However, even if it sounded wrong from his perspective, Cynder still advocated for Thel's opinion.

"This may sound harsh, but we have no choice! Magnaruckus is coming with everything he's got at his disposal! We need everyone who's able to fight, take up arms and defend the city against those barbarians" she admitted it sounded horrible, but this was a matter of life or death, the more that fought, the better chance the defenders win…even at such cost.

But Spyro…was not pleased with such a response, especially from his partner, "Sparx was not able to fight and yet he's gone! He's gone because he protected that…that cretin who froze like an ice mountain!" Spyro's own anger started to show itself as the harshness within his voice was eager to show itself. Cynder couldn't believe the kind of abuse she was being thrown back at.

"It's not his fault the Chieftain revived Shin and turned him against us, I don't blame him for even just standing there, he eventually fought back!" she argued back, then immediately, Spyro turned around to face her, with a searing row of exposed teeth.

"He only fought against Shin after Sparx was crushed in the hands of that monster! It has to have been payback for when he unintentionally made Arbiter fly to the Brute encampment!" Spyro was beyond the point of anger now, he wanted to send a clear message to Cynder how much he hated the Sangheili now, and blamed him for the death of Sparx.

"That's not true, Sparx saved him from Shin, and he won't be forgotten for it. What's wrong with you Spyro? This isn't like you to blame others for what they didn't mean to do!" she knew something wasn't natural coming from Spyro, but she couldn't put her paws on it to save her life. The purple dragon however, was not finished yet.

"You only say that because you consider Vadam, a creature who we've only met days ago, your brother!" Cynder then froze at that moment…how did Spyro know the level of bondship she and Thel shared? "That's right Cynder, you didn't think I'd know about it did you? What's the matter with you Cyn, you both weren't both weren't laid from the same mother!" Spyro growled with a swift turn away from Cynder. At that point, her feelings were instantly devastated.

Cynder then went out of her way to return the favour, taking a few more steps right behind Spyro, unfearful of his threatening tone…"Excuse me? Look who's talking! Raised by a family of dragonflies isn't exactly normal either, and you called one of them a brother! How does that separate the difference between us? Whether you like it or not, he's my brother, and I'll protect him until the day I die" with that final shout, she finally broke him…

Spyro, with a vengeful strike, turned and lashed out at her, spinning half-way around with a set of extended front right claws and slashed her face. The blow forced her to fall sideways onto the grass, in which she made a light but ear-piercing scream that only lasted for half a second.

The purple dragon stood and stared at her with shock…he attacked the dragoness he loved with all of his heart…the one he has stood by with ever since rescuing her…and he broke the one thing he promised her and himself never to do again.

Cynder, whose eyes were closed from the strike, opened them up from the darkness of her eyelids and felt 3 stinging stripes under her left eye. Spyro's claws had left 3 small scars under Cyn's emerald eye, wiping out the end of her marking. Hesitated to do look, but with a small wipe from her front left paw on the scars, her blood stained the underside of her paw, clear evidence that Spyro didn't hesitate to attack her.

Cynder was mortified…she looked up to her purple dragon in such disbelief…she could not even fathom that he attacked her…Spyro, her own future mate…the one she fought alongside with against Malefor, the one she admitted her love to in the Infirmary, the one SHE cried for when he was dying onboard the Shadow of Intent…not even words could describe how she felt now…

Spyro, in his own mind, didn't mean to do such a thing to her, his anger and rage immediately washed away, replaced by hated…of himself. With glistening eyes, widened and extremely sorry, he approached her slowly.

"Cynder…I'm sorry! I wasn't…thinking straight" the look on his face resented sorrow and shame, it all took over his feelings. Anything he did for Cynder would never repay for what he did to that moment he struck her…however, she wasn't stomaching any of it

"Stay away from me! Don't touch me!" she stood up and took many steps back and immediately got into her defensive stance. She had feeling an immense amount of betrayal run through her blood which ran very coldly through her body. Every part of her felt crushed underneath the weight of that horrible moment…her broken heart hurt more than whatever the stinging pain under her eye ever did.

"That wasn't me Cyn! I would NEVER hurt you, you have to believe me! I've…I've not been the same since Sparx died!" he desperately shouted with a tear in his eye, but she took 3 more steps back away from him, out of his reach "I've lost too much these past couple of weeks…Ignitus, Sparx…you're the only one in my life I have to turn to now...I don't want you to leave me as well…" he tried with whatever was left of his soul to get her back by his side, speaking truthfully about every word he said.

All she could do was stare at him in fear, heartbroken fear. Not only was she contesting herself to run away or stay in her defensive posture, but she was also questioning at that moment whether it was truly him that made the decision to attack her…or something else took over him and did it.

She couldn't bring herself to attack him in retaliation, it would only worsen the situation and she would never forgive herself for it…however, that didn't mean she would forgive him outright. The conclusion she came to though seemed like the only way she and Spyro were at terms.

"Spyro…I don't know what to do…in my entire life, every weapon that has hurt me, every crushing blow I have received during my fights against dark and evil forces…none of them hurt me as much as what you just did to me…whether or not it was you that made the blow, I can't risk myself being with you…" a cold shiver sped through her veins, and those last few words hit Spyro like a tidal wave hitting landfall.

"Wh-what are you saying?" he thought it was over…in his mind, he could tell Cynder didn't want to be his mate anymore. However, Cyn's mind messaged her body to say words other than those.

"I'm saying…we should stay away from each other during the battle…" the black dragoness made it clear she had no interest of fighting alongside Spyro as she has done many times before. This mentally stabbed Spyro in every area of his affections for Cynder, his desires to be with her completely disintegrated by those few words.

"I understand your hurt Spyro, and I want to believe that wasn't really you that hit me. But since there wasn't any darkness from you I can't be sure to know that…" a tear from her left eye ran down the red scars, increasing the stinging pain.

"Cynder please, I beg you I swear to never-" she stopped him right there, not wanting to hear anymore pleading words from Spyro's desperate soul.

"Enough. I'm done with what I what I wanted to say. Please just take care of yourself. This may be the last time I see you for all I know, because when they get breach through those walls they'll.." she didn't want to imagine anymore, rather let reality take over from there.

Spyro couldn't it in anymore, and yet he still didn't know that one thing that kept the 2 together, "Cynder" he called to her before she ran and took off, "Do we still have a future? Together?" That was the one a question Spyro desired over everything he knows and cares about, the one question that needed to be answered.

But Cynder gave him a sorry look back. Even with all the courage and power behind her, she couldn't bring herself to answer it. Without warning, she turned away and took off into the sky, flying back to the Infirmary without the purple dragon she was expected to bring back.

Spyro stood frozen, watching her fly away as she became the silhouette of a bird, then out of his view behind multiple stone brick buildings. His eyes were still widened by the disbelief of attacking his partner and his one and only gate to a destined future with the one he cared for so dearly.

His head lowered to the grass. In just a few minutes, he went from being high, mighty and devoted to affectionately caring for Cynder to a colossal mess of shambled hopelessness. He didn't have much now out of the way of emotions, all broken down into ruin. He opened his eyes to look to Sparx's grave, walking towards it in such a slow pace. He stopped before it and spoke only a few words.

"…I'm sorry Sparx…I wasted the only reason you sacrificed yourself…if you ever see Ignitus in the afterlife, tell him…tell him I'm sorry for wasting the position of the purple dragon. It should have been someone else in reality. If I couldn't protect you, Ignitus or Cynder…it means I can't protect anybody at all" he was disgusted with himself. He didn't want to be the purple dragon no longer; his failure to protect the ones he loved has proved time and time again that he cannot be the purple dragon that everyone has so far prophesised. With the one he loved and has slept closely now gone, the question is; what was his true motivation now?

He turned his attention to the dirt mound itself, opening his maw slightly and releasing an icy breath, sourced from his ice element. It started to freeze the mound before him, making an oval like dome around the grave, fully encasing it. The side effect that comes with being fully encased in ice is the resistance to time, everything is frozen and decomposition will not take place. Being an element also, it resists most temperatures, like the sun's highest temperature on this world.

"This may be my last chance to ever fight again…or ever live normally at the very most…see you later brother…" he turned away from the frozen grave and walked down the hill. To where his next destination was became unknown.

At the Infirmary, dozens upon dozens of Mole group leaders and Cheetah pack leaders gathered with the former Covenant remnants to discuss their tactics and defence capabilities. Darst took charge of what ideas can be used to dig into their positions.

There have already been a number of ideas taken in, as well as rejected due to the current circumstances and power the Jiralhanae have. Mostly the taken in ideas were strategic positions that led to the Grand Atrium and the southern parts of the city. It would be easier for the Brutes to simply attack these structures with the mighty power of their air force of Banshees and Phantoms…but adult Dragons don't take kindly to Brutes bombing their homes, and ground to air designs of accurate cannons don't help either.

"How are we to deal with their large war machines besides the ordnance we have taken in? Is it possible to get close to them and steal or blow them up that way?" A cheetah in a olive green cloak called out.

Darst replied; "If you have a death wish of trying to hijack a fast moving Ghost or Chopper then go right ahead, I insist!" he shouted back to the cheetah group leader.

"What is exactly the main force we are supposed to deal with? Air power? Ground power?" a Mole cannon gunner raised his clawed hand up.

Shin responded to this one; "Ground is definitely going to be the Brute's trump card for the battle, I haven't seen any Banshees aid the Phantoms from last night so they're possibly going to use their air superiority in bombing and support roles. Still, be very aware of them, the sound of their engines coming in close will give their attacks away".

A Mole warrior made a small comment about Shin's appearance to another Mole, "Tell me why we're listening to the very one that tried to kill everyone?" the response he got was a simple shrug and shaking head.

The Lekgolo monstrosities stood by with Jabjab and Yapflop, considering one does not speak any other language other than their own and the other…wouldn't really be of help anyway.

Yapflop turned to Jabjab to make quick conversation with him, "You are very happy with that gun aren't you…?" Yapflop commented and Jabjab stroked his vehicle destroying weapon.

"I am indeed! Are you happy with your burnt scars?" Jabjab poked at one of the burns on Yapflop's right arm, causing him to yelp in pain.

"OW! I told you to stop doing that, I thought you were the mature one here?" he spoke with the sound of irritancy.

But Jabjab had a valid reason for doing it, "You can't stop Grunts for being Grunts Yappy! You should know that by now". All was heard from Yapflop was a slight moan, looking away from the green armoured Grunt.

Hunter 2 made a low roar to the Grunts, opening and closing the worms at the neck area where supposedly it communicates to other Lekgolo in armor. It was annoyed by their antics, lowering their guard against what's coming for them, lowering his head towards the both of them. The surprise on both Yapflop's and Jabjab's face was absolutely priceless.

"We're sorry! We're sorry, geez, we're only trying to lighten the mood. It's just getting really sad around here" Jabjab look at the leaders taking their orders from Darst and Shin, with all their warriors and troops scattered around the city waiting for their return.

Hunters 1 and 2, Jabjab and Yapflop were standing out the front of the Infirmary whilst everyone else was gathered at the large block of stone bricks where Thel gave out the speech shortly after returning to Warfang from the Shadow of Intent's cataclysmic explosion. They rather stay away from the crowds who desperately needed tactics and strategies for the onslaught of Brutes they'll have to face.

It was that moment when Hunter 2 was attempting to scare the 2 Grunts into submission in order to get them to stop irritating him, making grumbled sounds with raised spines to act aggressive.

"Hey stop it, you're only trying to scare us, that won't work-" Hunter 2 immediately activated his assault cannon, opening the 3 metal claws and revealing the maw of the gun, "OK OK, I'M SORRY, I'M SORRY!" Yapflop cried out loud. Jabjab simply backed away as far as he could, and let Yapflop take all the blame.

However, Hunter 1 ignored it all. It instead was looking up at the sky for any sign of Brute activity, along with watching the white crystal clear clouds cut the sun in half. He immediately spotted a small birdlike silhouette flying towards them, a familiar shape indeed.

Cynder was flying back, but not with the dragon she was expected to bring with her. It wasn't until she slowed down to come in for a landing that 1 noticed the bleeding scars under her eye, just towards her mouth. Immediately, Hunter 1 got aggressive, seeing that she's been attacked by someone or something. This gained Hunter 2's attention as well as the Grunts.

The black Dragoness immediately knew of the large Hunter's aggravation and response to her wound as she walked by it, "It wasn't made by a Brute…don't bother wasting your energy" she spoke in such a low and emotionally broken tone. She had no interest of telling the Lekgolo anything, let alone being unable to properly communicate with it.

"Uhh, that looks really bad! What happened to you?" Jabjab called out to her as she entered the tent, immediately receiving an angered look by her.

"Stop talking to me! You're wasting!" she threw her head back the other way, storming in with the grief she carried on her shoulders. Jabjab was frozen stiff by that instant reaction, never being told off by a dragon before.

Yapflop looked as the green armoured Grunt with a surprised expression on his face, "A few words is all it takes to make her angry, nice one…"

Jabjab's skin shivered all over, with his eyes absolutely stunned over that moment, "What did I even say?!"

Thel was laying on a fresh new bed for him to lay on instead of the one that had Cynder's dried blood on it. His helmet lied beside him on the mattress whilst his neck and torso armor was sitting down beside the bed in order for Clin to easily remove the pieces of string in and around his skin. His stomach and below is still covered however, as well as his arms.

"Hrrmm, is this going to take long? It's getting cold in here…" Thel expressed his disgust over the time it takes to take the stiches out.

Clin responded fairly cheerily, especially under the current circumstances, "It takes time with this procedure; I rather not pull out your skin immediately and must fix it with more stiches. Besides, all you're wearing is armor over your skin. Shouldn't you be cold all the time if not just this moment?" Clin carefully cut the small string with a pair of scissors the slowly pulled the pieces out, not leaving a single tear behind…just a few extremely small holes.

Vadam replied to that comment Clin made, "We acclimatize doctor, us warriors have evolved since donning the first true piece of armor centuries ago. Besides, I'm surprised you haven't asked any of the dragons that" he tried not to chuckled whilst Clin was about finished with the procedure.

"Eh, you make a very fair point…" he pulled the last string out of Thel's skin, pulling back and wrapped up a piece of tissue over the cut pieces of string, some of it covered in Thel's blood.

Suddenly, Cynder burst through the drape curtains over the room, her face exhumed absolute dread and trepidation. Clin turned around to welcome her back but immediately, he couldn't help noticing the blood dripping from her left cheek.

"My dear! What happened?" he felt pained inside to see her state, after just cleaning her up moments ago. He noticed as she took her helmet and her wrist armor, the claw markings came up clear as a good day on the beach. Thel grunted as he moved himself up and saw the dragoness's mood and injury.

"Cynder, who did that to you? Where's Spyro?" he demanded from her, needing an explanation for this outrageous attack on her by an unknown assailant, which was immediately revealed to the both of them with her next sentence.

"Leave me alone…keep Spyro away from me!" she stormed back out with her armor wrapped around to her sides by her wings, with the helmet on the left wing. As she left their sights, it became clear where she got that claw injury.

"Oh no...I can't believe, CYNDER, STOP, WAIT UP! Thanks for your help doctor, start evacuating the tent though; it's best to set your plan in motion as soon as possible" The Arbiter quickly reattached all the armour's straps on his torso and neck, putting the plates back on him and grabbed his weapons, which were all on the wooden table near the entrance.

"I shall Vadam, you best hurry up to her. Both she and Spyro are possible now in great peril, and not a moment too soon" he started packing his equipment away in a small wooden suitcase, most of his valuables such as photos and desirable medical equipment inside.

With the weapons he collected from the armoury last night now on his backside and thighs, he rushed outside the tent, passing many moles that are either collecting their own valuables and equipment or just leaving. A rejuvenated Hunter had finally gotten up from his wounds and left his room, watching the sprinting Arbiter going by.

"Arbiter, what is the rush? Are the Jiralhanae here?" he called out. He still had the sense of plasma burns on his leg, still retaining a limp.

"Cynder walked in with her face scarred by 3 claws, I think she and Spyro had a fight! I have to get to her!" He turned back around and left the tent, leaving a stunned Hunter with widened green eyes.

As he rushed into the daylight, he looked over towards the crowds, then over to the other way where the Lekgolo and Grunts watched a dragoness walking away with a faster pace than usual, closing in on a stairway to the rooftops of the buildings around them.

"CYNDER! STOP!" he shouted out at the top of his lungs, catching Darst and Shin's attention, along with the Hunters and Grunts.

"Thel! You seem fine once again! What's the hurry?" Shin shouted out to his comrade, glad to see him up and running as always. He tried to smile, but only his organic mandibles would make that expression.

"I don't have time to talk now Tarscar, just get everybody ready for the attack!" and without a moment's notice, he ran passed the Lekgolo group and after Cynder.

Darst shouted out this time, concerned why Thel was not being attentive as he usually was. Obviously, he didn't see Cynder's injury, "In the name of the gods, what's the matter Arbiter?".

Unfortunately, before Thel could turn around and answer back, Yapflop looked up in the sky in response to an eerie sound he had once heard many times before, pointing up with one clawed finger.

"BANSHEE!" he screamed at the very apex of his lungs.

A Banshee attack craft was dive-bombing towards their area, firing a single highly destructive fuel bomb at the Infirmary's area and blowing away a rooftop of a rounded building rooftop nearby. This caught everyone's attention with shocking revelation.

Thel immediately turned around, as did the much further away Cynder. Darst looked up in the sky and noticed Magnaruckus's attack has truly begun.

"BANSHEE FIGHTERS! EVERYBODY TO YOUR POSTS, TAKE COVER!" Kino jumped down the stage along with Shin.

The shocked Elite group immediately spread away from the team leader's area by the Locust sitting next to the tent. Tesk, Veartra, Sarv and Tetrestu all watched as Warfang was attacked by Brute controlled Banshees in the sky, bombing the infrastructure and any group of Moles or Cheetahs they found.

"They're here! By the ancestors they're here! What do we do?" a Mole from a random group panicked as he watched Banshee craft fly around, bombing the city. Suddenly, individual Moles on top of buildings all over the city blew ancient war horns, alerting the city about the threat from above them all.

The war horns were so loud they could be heard from all the way to the southern quadrant of the city where all the civilians and injured were far away from the fight. Terrador was out the front entrance where he could see the Banshees fly around aimlessly and bombing Warfang.

Eventually, Cyril and Volteer too walked out a large entrance to this building's shelter to see what the commotion was. Their lower jaws dropped as they saw what was attacking the city.

"And thus…it begins my colleagues…only time will tell who is truly the strongest…and the fight against the Brutes is not the only war the heroes down there will have to endure…" Terrador murmured close to himself.


	69. Sangheili to Dragoness

Through the mystical skies of the beautiful planet that rightfully belongs to the Dragon race, with clouds partially blocking the sun rays bearing down to the Earth below. All inspiring grace and breeze of this sky could go on for generations to come, never halting its presence and existence. However, the cold breeze and its quiet, wisp sounds grinded to a stop when 2 Banshees flew by, slicing through the once silent skies.

One was trailing behind the other, zigzagging around the clouds to have a better visual in front of them, with their engine's vapour trails following the both of them. Slowly, with a sense of dread, they started descending towards the ground below. Immediately, when they were straight on course to their intended target, piercing through the clouds, blinding, devious clouds with a tint of grey.

As soon as they busted out from the clouds, making a quick barrel roll before fully visual to the ground below, the city of an invaded Warfang was beheld before the Brute Banshees, opening fire of the city's highly exposed and dangerously vulnerable pale yellow stone brick buildings. They both hit directly on a single square building near the front gates of the city. However, one of the cannons on top of the front wall were already alerted by the time they dived bombed, firing into the air and the fiery rock smashed into the Banshee in front, obliterating its left wing engine and spun it out of control.

As its wing-mate elevated back up high in the sky, the doomed craft smashed into a cobblestone road, immediately defeated. Everywhere else however, smoke columns could be seen miles away from the city's position. Some of it was created by red blazing fires of the damaged and destroyed structures; others were green plasma fire burning in molten puddles of the essence of the rods, which, along with a sizzling burn, made a darkish sage column of smoke.

The city was on a full defensive fight, every able Mole who was able to carry a ranged weapon were frantically firing into the sky, hopelessly bouncing arrows and scavenged ballistic weapons off the Brute's fairly armoured Banshees. However, as was with the fiery ordnance from the golden cannons had shown, they weren't invincible towards even to the less technologically developed species.

The Brute craft however completely ignored the defences aiming at the sky, fully acknowledging the advantage of their speed over the dumbfire of the cannons. To them, it's considered a lucky shot on the previous downed Banshee, and instead continued to rain green fire on the city's infrastructure.

Around the Infirmary area, the moles and cheetahs formally surrounding Shin and Darst had greatly dispersed in full on panic, running back to their positions all over the frontal defences of Warfang. However, some of the lower clad warriors were in such a state of shock by the lightning attacks, it had caused them to be easy targets for plasma strafing runs by the dive bombing alien craft.

As each Banshee dived towards the city, the eerie scream of their engines speared fear into the vulnerable warriors. Never in their lifetimes such sounds and machines have been set forth against them, causing a great distress of low morale to fight back with. All they could do was to regroup and reorganise themselves, whilst avoiding the bombardments.

However, with each dead soldier, killed by dive bombing or strafing runs, it numbers Warfang's days as a capital city of the Dragon race and the pinnacle of Mole architecture and creativity. And if this Banshee attack isn't halted soon, it could already signal the beginning of the end for all of her inhabitants and the survivors of the Shadow of Intent.

Darst and Shin had taken refuge in-between a stairway that separated pathways into the two buildings they are huddled against, providing them adequate but temporary cover from the Banshee fire. Kino already had his Concussion rifle out by the time the second fuel rod hit the city, and Shin kept hold of the Spiker he used, before his true reincarnation, to stab Darst with.

The 4 Elites from the crash were bunched up under the cover of Tesk's Locust walker. When the first bomb dropped, they still hadn't decided who was taking the leading reign of their squad; with Ventor gone they were still uncoordinated and had to plan of repelling the more united Jiralhanae attackers. Veartra and Tesk were at the front of the group crouched down to avoid fire, whilst Tetrestu and Sarvasu were stuck behind them and against a stone brick structure on the other side from Darst and Shin, and what was even worst, the Locust was completely exposed to Banshee fire, parked against the same building.

"By the gods, they're destroying everything!" Tesk shouted at the apex of his lungs, watching another screaming Banshee dive bomb a structure's rooftop across from them, showering Shin and Darst with dust and debris.

"Hrrr, now I know how the Humans felt..." Sarv grumbled, annoyed to have the feeling of being overwhelmed by high technological forces.

Hunter ran out of the tent to see what kind of carnage held out before his eyes. As soon as he looked up to the skies, it became clear to him about the intentions of these craft; total obliteration of the city and prepare it for the final assault by Mag's seemingly unstoppable ground force.

"Ancestors of the heavens this is too much! What are you doing all of you? Find something to hide behind!" he took his attention over to the panicking, inexperienced Moles who were running around like ants being attacked and sprayed by a hose.

"Hunter! Get over here now, hurry!" he heard a voice coming from the rounded building with the burning top, the same one that was struck by the first Fuel bomb. It was Prowlus hiding under the shadows of the front with a stone brick cover over him and a few of his most trusted warriors.

Hunter immediately ran over to the cheetah chief's location, as he looked to his left side, down the street the Fuel bombs from the 2 Banshees, followed by repeated plasma cannon fire. A large and unfortunate number of very inexperienced warriors were caught in such fire and magnitude. If he wasn't called over by Prowlus, Hunter would have been among them.

The Banshees flew back high up after their run was completed, watched closely by the Cheetahs who were out of their sight and temporarily safe from their attacks.

"Those monstrous machines are tearing everything apart, and we don't have a single reliable defence against them!" Prowlus grumbled in irritancy, he knew the Banshees were too fast and had enough armour to resist their current weaponry.

"Do we have anything that can hit them without the use of Alien weaponry? We only have so many launchers scattered around the city that can reliably hit them" Hunter turned to the chief, hoping that something in their arsenal would be able to at least damage let alone destroy the Covenant aircraft.

"As far as I know the only weapon that's been able to destroy one of these things was one of the cannons at the front wall. However I think the shooter just got lucky because those cannons fire slow and their projectiles wouldn't be able to hit those things even at their slowest speed!" Prowlus explained a quick but easy to take in explanation.

"Well at least it's been shown that they're not invincible to even our own weapons. Someone's bound to come up with a plan to deal with these things" Hunter was hoping someone would be able to organise a rough defence against the Banshees, they're simply softening up the city's defences for the force that isn't far behind.

Arbiter and Cynder were a fair way down the same street, away from the carnage near the Infirmary. The black dragoness was stuck with fear by how fast the Banshees were tearing up the city, watching everything the craft hit get set ablaze. She had seen beforehand how sleek and quick the Banshee craft was due to Thel's flying from before during the Brute encampment raid. To see them doing all this shown how truly fearful these craft are.

Vadam caught sight of one of the Banshees splitting away from its wing mate and heading straight for the 2 of them, "By the holy rings!" he immediately picked up Cynder, to her shock, and dived over to the ally next to them, avoiding a pot shot Fuel bomb explosion at their former position before the Banshee turned back up to the sky.

The dust from the explosion showered over Thel and Cynder, with the dragoness groaning from that instant pickup and dive. She crawled from the Arbiter's arms and stood back on her feet.

"You could've warned me instead of grabbing me!" she flapped both of her wings to stretch the membranes back out. Her cheek scarring from Spyro still bled, dripping tiny drops onto the cobblestone ground below her.

"You weren't paying attention to the Banshee that was heading straight for us!" his hands clasped onto the ground, pushing his body back up. He immediately brushed off the dust on his arms, watching a small brown cloud come off and blown away by the breeze,

Cynder looked down; spotting her helmet that had been dropped onto the ground from the impact of Thel's dive. Attempting to evade a conversation with Thel about the 'incident', her wings took hold of it, slipping under and lifting it up towards her head. However, before the headpiece could even touch her, Arbiter rested his right hand on the top of her helmet, completely stopping her.

"You're not avoiding me that easily Cynder...what happened with you and Spyro?" his pupils narrowed down to her 3 scars. Although he was concerned about her health and situation, he was also irritated by her ignorance and her attempts to slither herself away from him.

Although she felt hurt inside to talk to him in a manner she was about to speak, she still had the urge to move away from him and deal with the threat to Warfang at this very moment, "Thel...I rather not discuss about it. We have a more urgent matter to attend to" she looked up into the sky and spotted two more Brute controlled aircraft flying over them.

Before she could even move, an extremely anxious Thel took her by holding both her fore legs. Her eyes widened with surprise, he held onto her much tightly unlike much before, unable to let go of her until she tells him right there and right now.

"As much as I want to aid the city as well, I can't do that until I know the situation between you and Spyro, having the both of you turning your backs onto each other JUST as the Brutes attack is not, in any way, shape or form, a benefit to the defence of Warfang. It puts the both of you in a battle status that isn't fully dedicated to the fight because of lingering thoughts... another reason is...why?" he spoke with such a shallow tone, "You both carried and undying bond! What happened?" he stared at her with such disbelief.

She hesitated answering back, looking away, to the Sangheili she calls a brother knowing that it wasn't any of Thel's business. No matter how close they were, Cynder didn't want to explain her issue with the purple dragon...but deep down in her heart, she knew that someone had to be told sooner or later.

"...We had an argument" her head went back to him, face to face, "Spyro was ignoring me when I tried talking to him. He made a grave for Sparx at that hill with a tree planted in the middle of it, the same one that we spent time on after you were brought here..." the dragoness turned around a slowly walked away, getting some distance from Vadam.

Turning around she continued her explanation about the event, "The one thing I don't blame him for was still being hurt over what happened to Sparx...he ignored for that partial duration. He told me to leave him but I knew I had to get him back for treatment at the Infirmary. And then..."

Thel raised a brow.

"He started telling me he blames you for Sparx's death, when you stood there as we fought against Shin. I wasn't going to allow him to say that so I argued with him, supporting you. Somehow he also knew of our...adoptable family tie" she was inadvertently giving him a look of sadness and sorrow, but it became willingly as soon as she came up to the final moment between the two dragons.

"He got me angry then, and I stated that no matter what, you were brother and always will be, and I'd die to protect you...and then he turned around and slashed me...clawed right under my eye. Any closer and I would've been half blind!" her eyelids closed tightened, holding back the tears.

Thel's bottom mandible slowly lowered in shock from the blame Spyro put on him. However, a realization grew in the back of his head concerning the blame. He sighed deeply and wiped the right side of his face.

"He has a point Cynder. I may as well accept full responsibility for his death..." Arbiter kneeled down to her height, wanting to get this out of the way before they both threw themselves before the might of Mag's air force.

"What? Why? Thel it wasn't your fault!" she opened her eyes in immediate response. She wasn't accepting his words of guilt, but Thel predicted it would come to that.

"I shouldn't have stood there whilst you all fought him off alone; I should've at least struck back at him. If it were easy to just fight back then Sparx would still be alive. Instead I froze like a coward...I let an ally of mine die horrifyingly, a moment that could've easily changed if I had just swung my blade just ONCE!" he roared at the top of lungs, smacking his left fist onto the cobblestone, "That in my kind's perspective...is what dishonours one's family name..." Cynder's eyes could only glare upon him after all of that. She took one whole step back from him; the sheer impotent rage that welled up in him was something of a surprise to her.

A speckle of dark purple blood came trickling from the bottom of his fist. He had hit the cobblestones so hard it pierced his skin, a hide that is fairly resistant to most natural surfaces. She looked back to him, completely empty minded. She didn't know what to say in a positive response, still darkened by what she explained to him.

"I don't want to linger on this anymore than you do but please, don't act like I wasn't to blame for it because deep down even you know that. I let that dragonfly die, the one you both know and the one you both cared for as friends...which lead to Spyro attacking you" he cleared his throat and stood back up on his feet. The sense of dishonour dreaded him, but it wasn't anymore than what he felt of letting Sparx die. Immediately, she protested his last statement.

"No Thel, Spyro attacking me wasn't because of Sparx's death. All the time I've spent with him, the only reason I think he would attack me was not out of free will, but by a touch of darkness...but then..." she stopped there, remembering the moment she was stuck by the blew she received. Thel tilted his head.

"I never saw any darkness sprout from him...no blackness, not white eyes...it almost seemed like it was him with his own thoughts and heart...and then I'm contested with the other side and still now...I don't know if it was truly him or not" her wings draped over her head, dropping her helmet.

Thel didn't know all that much about Spyro's dark side other than its creation and effects to the purple dragon. He wanted to keep the dragoness's morale up by agreeing on Spyro's darkness making him attack Cynder, but if it really wasn't, he'd only be lying to her and destroying her more than she already was devastated. It only led to one option.

"Then you have to see him again and talk to him, maybe he could explain-" he got cut of immediately.

"I'm going to risk my life even trying to speak to him...before I left, I said it would have been the last time he'd see me because when the Brutes eventually breach through the front gate, they would tear us-" then suddenly, Cynder got cut off back.

"How could you say such a thing? What if Spyro was killed, you would regret that for the rest of your life!" Thel couldn't stomach such a thing. Even if it was Spyro's darkness tapping into him, he couldn't believe the dragoness would go ahead and use that as a possible outcome. Her maw was left wide open.

"If there's one thing that I shall not let happen, is not one, but TWO of being killed by these fiends! And it was those fiends that killed Sparx because they revived Shin!" he kneeled down to take hold of her helmet and slowly slip it onto her head, hoping to avoid her bleeding scars.

"As I said before; Sparx's death was my unwilling and unwanted fault, but not the origin of it. Magnaruckus revived Shin, enabling fate to take the dragonfly's soul away from all of us...so, if I were to die today in this city, I want to make sure that Chieftain dies with my arms crushing his windpipe. I want him dead, by any means necessary" like a glove, her helmet lowered down and stopping till a full fit. It covered her 3 scars, stinging the dragoness to her nerve centre, but what it did help with was the stopping of the bleeding.

"Unfortunately, you have to deal with your issues with Spyro later, and hope to the gods and ancestors that he does not get into too much trouble...you'll be haunted with those words for eternity" Thel murmured lightly. His right hand held her where the scars would be, unveiling the care he gives to her all the time.

As soon as Thel stood up to his full figured length, a Fuel bomb smashed into the road again. It sent a very unfortunate Mole flying across the air and slammed back into the ground.

"Ok Cynder...we need to end this attack as quickly as possible" he stated with pride trailing with his sentence. The black dragoness looked up, slightly hesitant to nod but did so in spite of the danger these Banshees posed to the city.

**Apologies for the fairly small chapter guys but I thought I've starved you guys for too long on content. Plus, I need to put out something for Christmas didn't I? Again, I apologise.**

**However, the story is still going on and I'm not abandoning it anytime soon I swear, it's as much as a part of me as my lungs are, yeah, I'm that attached to it.**

**In either case, I hope you guys have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year; I hope you all have good fortunes for next year. Stay safe guys **

**BTW: I made a Sangheili and Dragons Christmas pic, 2 version of it. Here's the one I like the most. Hope yous like it! ^^**

art/S-a-D-Christmas-2013-Version-2-418954104


	70. Evil skies

**Alright, back at last to bring you chapter 70 in the story. Again, apologies for not updating, but hopefully a lengthy chapter will cover for time I've been away. And yes, I've changed my username to a name that I always use the internet across what I do, so it's goodbye to Annihilator 78 from here on out. If you don't like the change, please let me know.**

The sun was fully out from behind the mountains as the battle for Warfang rages on, with dive bombing Banshees relentlessly pounding the city's streets with fuel bombs raining down with virtually no end. The city's defenders were becoming increasingly desperate. The Mole warriors who didn't have a ranged weapon had no choice but to scramble for a piece of cover that could inevitably be destroyed by just one bomb. The material of all that's in the city was unable to stop such powerful alien weaponry.

"Get off the streets! They're gunning us all down like cannon fodder!" the Blacksmith leader called out as his pointed his sword in the direction towards buildings, warning his troops of the potential of the Banshee's primary armament.

That became immediately apparent as another aircraft swooped down from the skies to fire a fuel bomb at the front wall near the gates, passing over the wall and firing its main, fast firing plasma cannons down the same street where the Infirmary was.

The black armored Blacksmith warriors were already taking cover near building rubble, but their compatriots however had less chance of surviving the strafing run. Ones who were behind or near cover narrowly avoided taking a bolt to their bodies, whilst more unfortunate Moles were gunned down without any mercy. The Banshee eventually flew over them and ascended up towards higher skies.

Darst poked his head out of cover to examine the situation at hand. Clin and his associate doctors were running out of the shot up Infirmary with whatever equipment they could muster. They quickly sprinted towards a nearby Sangheili from across the other side of the street where Darst was positioned.

That Sangheili was Sarvasu, gritting his teeth as he watched more Banshees fly over their location. His comrades, Tesk, Veartra and Tetrestu, who was now in cover with the other 2 by the Locust assault walker.

"Hurry! Get over here!" Sarv shouted to the medical staff, seeing a Banshee already on approach for yet another run, diving down at them with high speeds in its attack maneuver.

"Lordy lordy! OH LORDY!" Clin shouted as he jumped into cover with Sarvasu. His other 7 associates simply hid behind fallen rubble, "As you can see my dear Sangheili ally, I am not warfighter!" he exclaimed as he stood up with his case of meds, looking up at the tall Minor ranked Sangheili.

Sarv rolled his eyes just before the Banshee came in and started raining more plasma fire on the street. As passed over his location, he lifted his Carbine and fired at the Banshee's backside, hoping to do some kind of damage that would at least caution the Brute from trying such an act again. But it was a useless retaliatory action, his weapon's projectiles simply scratching the surface of the craft, "Blast them to the depths of the Flood! If we don't start bringing some of them down we'll be punching bags for their ground forces! TESK! GET IN THE LOCUST AND SHOOT THEM DOWN NOW!" Sarv reloaded his weapon whilst shouting over to the youngest Sangheili of the lot, needing his knowledge from the last time he used the monstrous walker.

"But the main laser is used mostly against infantry and ground vehicles! I'll just give those Jiralhanae more incentive to bomb us!" Tesk really didn't agree with the usage of an energy projector weapon on aircraft, but Veartra nevertheless grabbed him by the shoulder to turn him around, "We need you in it Tesk, none of us have had any experience of piloting one of these machines" she stared at him face to face, eyes to eyes, as she revealed her slowly growing loss of faith in their ability to avert such a devastating enemy with a much more powerful arsenal at their disposal.

Tet was checking how many plasma grenades he had left in his launcher, looking over back to Tesk to help push him even further, "Forget how war machines are supposed to be used Tesk, didn't you use it against a Phantom earlier? Banshees may be faster and more maneuverable than a big fat target like a dropship, but don't forget they're piloted by Brutes. Trust in your skills and you'll come out victorious" it was as if Tet was giving our some sort of a minor propaganda speech to the much younger Sangheili. It was this, combined with Veartra's look that gave Tesk some confidence in his abilities.

He looked away from Tet with a heavy sigh, turning his head back to Veartra, "Ok…you all might want to grab some cover somewhere else then, the Brutes won't be taking it easy on me when they see a walker like this attempting to shoot them down" he warned them, knowing it's going to draw a lot of attention.

"Be careful Tesk…this battle will be a lot harder for me to fight if…" she kept her mandibles shut tight, not wanting to go further with her words.

Tesk's eyes opened up a little. He could see the care she had for him. He has had his eyes on Veartra for a while but didn't know if she ever felt the same towards him, but the past few hours has proven that in times of battle, that little bit of companionship can go a long way, "It's fine Veartra. I'll be fine, just get somewhere safe now, your life was already in jeopardy once, I rather it stay that way. Go, and Tet, I'll need your help from up high again" he assured Veartra's hopes of seeing him get through this, whilst also asking Tetrestu to provide some cover fire with the Plasma Launcher. Tet nodded quickly and ran towards a building that's yet to be bombed by Banshees.

Veartra sighed heavily and took her Needle Rifle away from Tesk and his Locust, getting into cover with Sarv, "Finally the young one is becoming an adult Sangheili warrior…" Sarv commented as Tesk opened up the underside hatch of the Locust, climbing on in there and getting back into the cockpit. Veartra had a different opinion in mind though, "He's already an adult in my eyes…" her thoughts made her narrow her eyes down as the Locust started to stand up.

As the Locust stood up in a combat position, Tesk kept an eye on the skies surrounding him, trying to walk the monstrous Locust to a better position than in the midst of a city street. Its large legs made that same eerie mechanical whirring as one left made its step, and the next one move.

The legs moved with the front left one taking a step first, then the back right one moves up behind the front right one just after it. The final back left leg then takes a step just behind the front left leg and the whole process repeated itself. It moved a lot slower than a normally built Covenant Locust, but as long as it brought the firepower to bear on its enemies, Tesk can nevertheless work with what he's got.

Tet hurried upstairs of the building he was inside, trying to get to the rooftop as fast as he could. He could easily hear the mechanical workings of the Locust, far different to a normal Locust due to the primitive way it was built. A moment later though, it was overshadowed by the screams of Banshees passing over. Suddenly, as he reached the top of the stairs, Tet kicked down the door that blocked his way, running outside and positioning himself on a corner facing the street. He had full view of the sky around him, now providing anti air cover for Tesk's Locust.

It just so happens that his timing was impeccable. 2 Banshees, side by side, were coming around over the front walls and preparing to fire at the Locust, lining up their firing arcs. "Oh by the gods here they come!" Tesk panicked, pulling back levers that enabled his walker to point its main weapon up towards the approaching aircraft. Tetrestu shoulder mounted his Plasma Launcher, narrowing his right eye down as his locked onto the Banshee to Tesk's left.

Now in range, Tesk pulled and held the trigger positioned within the right lever, opening its firing port, charging and immediately firing the energy projector weapon, which in fact was still a Focus rifle highly overcharged and buffed by plasma batteries picked up from the Shadow of Intent's wreckage, created a purple/bluish beam of pure plasma.

It missed directly, but Tesk exposed his teeth as he pulled the beam into the Banshee on the right, burning right through its armor and tearing off its right winged engine, causing it to spin out and crash into a round domed building.

"GOT ONE!" Tesk shouted in amazement, his first Banshee kill and another aerial kill, the first few being Phantoms. The other, having watched his wing-mate fall, tried to pull away as the beam dissipated, only to be locked on target by Tet's Plasma Launcher.

He fired a volley of 3 homing grenades from the multi barreled launcher, flying up towards its target as it pulled up and ascended towards the skies. Unfortunately however, it was too slow in its ascension, with all 3 grenades sticking to the Jiralhanae craft, exploding in a blue blaze of glory.

Sarv smirked, seeing that the resistance finally has a few counter weapons to stop the aerial assault. Darst, now seeing this area may just be secure enough to start making his way to the front wall, came out of cover with the now half Sangheili/half Cyborg Shin behind him.

"I need to see the size of their ground forces Tarscar, if we hurry we may be able to rally the survivors at the walls and prepare for the waves of dropships and ground attackers. Even if it isn't much, it'd still be good to have a few of those cannons operational!" the crimson Zealot explained to his companion, looking back at that one cybernetic and one organic eyed Sangheili.

"What about the Cheetah leaders? And Thel? And Cynder?" Shin questioned their fates in the next few moments, slightly worried by what they were going to do.

"They'll be fine. I'm more worried by where the Hunters and the Grunts have gone to, they stumbled off ever since those Banshees started bombing us" Darst looked around as they ran, passing intersections and alleyways that were undamaged, damaged and turned into scarred earth.

Shin looked up at the sky to his right. Overhead, a Banshee was avoiding fuel beam fire from the ground, obviously fired by allies. His eyes widened slightly, wondering what those Hunters were up to.

"RUN! GET TO THE PHANTOM!" Jabjab cried in horror as he, Yapflop and the 2 Lekgolo worm colonies in heavy armor were targeted by diving Banshees. Hunter 1 and 2 were providing their small allies heavy protection against the plasma and fuel bombs as they reached the markets where the resistance's entire vehicle arsenal laid, excluding the Locust. Still in good condition, the Phantom, the Spectre, Thel's Banshee, and a Ghost were combat ready, and the vehicle Yapflop chose to use was their given Phantom.

"AHHH! BANSHEE!" Yapflop had his head turned around, holding his Fuel Rod Gun up and pointing it at a diving Banshee which had already fired its bomb. As it approached, Hunter 1, the larger worm colony of the two, stood in front of Yapflop and raised his massive metal shield, made from the same materials as an Assault Carrier's hull.

The fuel bomb slammed right into Hunter 1's shield, exploding on impact and saving the Unggoy's little life. It growled very aggressively, lifting the massive arm cannon, opening up its pinchers and charging the weapon as the Banshee attempted to evade the retaliatory attack. Hunter 1 opened fired, narrowly missing the main fuselage of the Banshee and letting it get away.

Yapflop shook in fright, stepping back to see his life was saved by the massive creature. Hunter 1 turned around to the orange armored Grunt and pointed in the direction of the Phantom, making ordering roars in its language, telling him to get to the dropship now with Jabjab.

"Thank you! Thank you thank you thank! Come on, come with us on the Phantom, we need some more firepower inside the main holding room!" Yapflop asked Hunter 1 to come aboard their dropship. If they were to board they could provide the side of the ship some support fire, covering most of the forward Plasma Cannon's blind spots.

Hunter 2, just reaching its big brother ran by and turned around, seeing a Banshee flying low and speeding through the street, almost exactly like how Yapflop flew it when he was trying to reconstruct Thel's Banshee earlier. It was on a one way trip to kill Hunter 1, seeing it as a huge threat to Magnaruckus's efforts.

Jabjab was under the Phantom, trying to get it to scan his being so he could board through the gravity lift. He turned and saw the kamikaze Banshee heading straight for them, "Guys! Watch out, there's another one!" Jabjab pointed at it, alerting them of the threat.

Hunter 1 reared its head around roared in shock by this act of selfless sacrifice, showing that the Jiralhanae were going to extreme lengths to annihilate their enemy's best weapons and warriors. The Banshee pilot put all of his craft's energy built up in a dive and used his boosters to further increase the speed and potential force of his kamikaze attack. It was mere seconds out and Hunter 1 didn't have time to react before the Brute rams him into oblivion.

Just milliseconds before the Brute achieved his purpose, Hunter 2 was quick to stop his goal. It brought all its force up into the left heavy shielded arm and swiped it across, smashing the Banshee out of the way and making it crash into market stalls galore. It finally blew up as it hit a building, killing both the pilot and the aircraft, foiling his plan.

Hunter 2 made small growls, looking up at its big brother who greatly appreciated he done. It all happened so fast for Hunter 1 that it wouldn't have been able to have raised its massive shield to at least try and survive the kamikaze attack.

Yapflop however was in a state of shock. He was just reminded of one of his stunts back a few days ago, when he almost killed Thel in the exact same way. After he stopped shivering, he looked over to the wrecked Banshee with a sigh of relief, twice that his life has been saved by Hunters so far in this battle.

"Oh for the love of…When you guys are done letting yourselves almost get killed, GET ABOARD THIS BEAST! We have Brutes to slaughter at last!" Jabjab shouted, clenching his fists as the gravity lift finally opened up. The lift took him up and placed him inside the main holding bay.

Yapflop started sweating from his forehead immediately, sprinting towards the dropship, "WAIT FOR ME!" he shouted, jumping into the lift's area of effect and happily cheered as he was gulped up inside the hanger.

Jabjab walked over to a switch console, this opened up the side doors for when the Covenant needed fast drop offs instead of single and small group drops through the lift. In this case, this is where the Hunters would provide support fire with their arm cannons. As a matter of fact those 2 Lekgolos just arrived inside the main bay.

"Ok here's how it goes, I fly the dropship, the 2 Hunters provide cover from the sides, and Yapflop sits tight here where he's gonna do nothing to jeopardize my superior piloting skills" Jabjab's simple planning, seemingly straight forward enough, did not go along with Yapflop that well…

"Oh no! I'm flying and you'll be the one sitting here doing absolutely nothing for the entirety of the battle!" Yapflop poked him in the chest, attempting to usurp his position.

"No! I'm flying! I'm more competent than you!" Jabjab pushed him back, and Yapflop retaliated by pushing as well. Soon enough, they were pushing each other back and forth.

"I'm flying the dropship!"

"I'm flying the dropship!"

The Hunters could only shake their heads in disappointment, knowing this could take a little while before they even got back into the combat.

However they knew if the Grunts didn't settle their differences sooner or later, the battle will be over faster without their participation. Warfang was in jeopardy as the Jiralhanae ground army dangerously closes in, and the Banshees were relentless as part of the second wave of attacks against the resistance. The Moles were in a state of panic, completely at the mercy of the flying war machines, with Cheetah warriors trying desperately to use whatever alien weapons lying around the city dropped by the Apes. Hunter could see the city's inhabitants increasing desperation as they even threw rocks as the Banshees flew low over the buildings.

A fair way away from both the Infirmary area and the vehicle lot, Prowlus was running through the city alleyways, with a slightly falling behind Hunter who still retained his previous 2 plasma injuries to his back leg.

He heard a groan as the red cloaked and armored Cheetah leader, seeing his companion struggle to keep up with those wounds, "Hunter…get to the southern city blocks, you'll never make it with burns like those-"he was immediately stopped by Hunter's persistence, slightly limping pass him.

"Every minute that goes by chief, dozens more suffer…I need to stay in this fight Prowlus, even if it gets me killed, my sacrifice will at least save another's life" he exposed his teeth, slightly snarling as he was about to walk out of an alley way upon open ground.

"To save another incompetent warrior who can't get his act together…" he stared at the orange furred warrior sternly, walking up behind him and grabbing Hunter by the shoulder, "You're needed more alive than dead to us Hunter…you've seen the state Meadow was in after he made the call to trudge to the Jiralhanae camp and look what's happened! I cannot bear to see you in that state…or worst" Prowlus couldn't get the thoughts of Meadow's horribly mangled state, letting Hunter go and shaking his head of the images.

Hunter spun his head around and stared at Prowlus. He could understand why he was acting like this, Hunter was indeed THE best warrior out of the entirety of the Cheetah clan in Avalar, and indeed a good friend to the chief…

"Prowlus…I know where you're coming from…and I can see why you rather me be in good hands than fighting off the hordes with a damaged limb…but I feel that if I don't take part in the fight now, the Brutes will cut down our warriors much easier than…I need to partake in the fight chief, you know I must! To defend these inhabitants and save not only their lives, the lives of our people back in the village. We lose here, we lose everything! This city, our village, Avalar, our whole world will be up in flames by the end of this day…" Hunter was heavily convincing the chief of this dire situation, trying to make him see it from Hunter's point of view instead his for once, "At the very least chief…let me prolong that with my participation…no matter the state I'm currently in".

The cheetah leader could only sigh in defeat. He was right. Every warrior needs a chance to fight, even if they suffered a couple of burns by plasma. Prowlus sighed and crossed his arms tightly, "Alright…but if you're killed…a memorial shall be erected in your name".

Hunter raised his bow and kept it at his side, lowering his voice with a bit of depth. "A memorial should be erected for all who have died in the defense of Warfang…not just for me…"

"Perhaps so Hunter…perhaps so" Prowlus slowly nodded, agreeing with his brother in arms.

However, as the chief did finish his sentence, a damaged Banshee flew just above the building ceilings nearby by. Its left engine badly damaged, the pilot frantically tried to land in the midst of open city ground. Hunter and Prowlus looked up with gaping maws, watching in surprise as yet another alien vehicle has fallen to the defenses of Warfang.

"Back up, BACK UP!" Hunter pounced away from the crash landing Banshee, as too did Prowlus in the nick of time as its dark purple shaded figure scrapped along the cobblestone ground.

It stopped dragging its metal husk after coming to a halt. The Banshee's right engine was completely inoperable, blackened with yellow sparks of electricity coming off the outer shelling. This damage was made by a weapon or a war machine…but by something more elemental.

Hunter looked up in the sky as Spyro pierced through the sky, retaining his golden but slightly scratched up armor. Whatever was shiny though had reflected the sun off, from the Cheetah's eyes in any case. Spyro was the culprit behind bringing down this monstrosity of machine, revealing his vitality to the sky battle. With one being in the sky, it at least levels a bit of ground between the opposing forces…but it was still one dragon, a purple dragon nevertheless, in the midst of sky bound aircraft.

"Spyro…he brought down this mechanical evil? But the last time I saw him he-" Hunter murmured quietly, remembering that the savior took off after Cyborg Shin was defeated with a deceased Sparx in his grasp.

Prowlus turned to the crash site, where's to his shock, a Jiralhanae forced open his cockpit's hatch open, allowing him to hop out and look back at them with a deathly smile, exposing his teeth.

"Hunter! The beast still lives!" the Cheetah leader warned Hunter and dragging him out of his thoughts. His eyes laid upon his enemy, a Jiralhanae with dual Spikers by his thighs, relinquishing them and prepared for battle with the 2 warriors.

"They're a lot bigger close up than I initially anticipated…" Prowlus commented, drawing upon his always reliable steel silver bladed sword from his right thigh in the defense of their lives.

"And far uglier might I add" Hunter raised his bow, taking aim with an arrow he took out from his quiver.

"Vermin of this planet! Finally, something delicious to sink my teeth into" the Jiralhanae pilot stepped menacingly towards them with raised Spikers.

Hunter slowed his breathing down to calm his nerves, letting go of his thoughts and processed them into concentration. With precise aim he let go of the end of his chosen arrow, its trajectory and piercing spot being the Jiralhanae's exposed and armorless throat.

The Brute's eyes widened as he couldn't breathe no longer. Dropping both of his weapons without any thought process at all, the force of Hunter's arrow completely went through his neck with the sharp end coming from the back. Whilst the Brute was suffocating, losing blood front and behind, the Cheetah leader ran up to the disabled enemy savage and impaled him through his chest armor with his sword, holding onto the Brute's head with his left hand and sword in right.

A combination of 2 fatal blows instantly killed the larger enemy. Dead eyes left open as he died, Prowlus pulled his sword out from the Brute's chest to let his bloodied corpse fall onto the cobblestones. The chief smirked, seeing that their enemies were just as vulnerable in certain places as anyone else is.

"After seeing what these monsters have done so far, taking a creature's life has never felt so relieving…" he turned to Hunter, "I demand to shed more of their blood! They'll pay dearly for defiling these lands with their filthy footprints" he sheathed his blade and hauled over his most prized spoil from the Unggoy's Phantom crash many days ago, the Concussion rifle.

Hunter could see the burning fire in Prowlus's eyes. He was gaining as much fighting spirit as the Sangheili were. Whether that was a good or bad thing remains to be seen.

Just as they were distracted with their first official Brute kill of the battle though, Hunter looked up above Prowlus to see a blue ball of fiery energy coming straight towards them. It was somewhat slow, but big enough to warn Hunter's mind that things were about get extremely dangerous.

"INCOMING! PROWLUS GET TO COVER NOW!" Hunter shouted to his trusted compatriot, stepping back further away as the ball of energy arced into the chief's area. Prowlus raised a slight brow, looking up in the sky to its cleansing blaze.

He panicked, running towards Hunter's location and jumped at the very last second before it plummeted into the cobblestones, unleashing a huge plasma explosion that disintegrated the Brute's corpse. Prowlus however escaped unscathed, holding his rifle still and throwing his cape out of the way, staring at the damage the blast had created.

"In the name of the ancestors…where did that come from? No war machine above us could create something of that caliber…" he concluded as he stood back up, seeing a gaping hole filled with black charred scarring and a dissipating blue aura.

"There's more of them Prowlus…" Hunter solemnly whispered, looking over towards the front wall as he watched more of these balls of plasma energy arced over the front wall. It was artillery, plasma artillery. And plasma artillery could come from…

"The Jiralhanae ground forces…they have finally arrived" the orange cloaked Cheetah concluded. He was gravely correct. Only a few of these artillery shaped projectiles were being fired over the walls at a high altitude, but the speed of these plasma bombs combined with their raw power caused tremendous damage to structures.

In the open fields far in front of Warfang, the origins of this plasma artillery was easily spottable, but completely out of range. Wraiths, lined up at the very back of a massive Jiralhanae invasion force, were providing huge support fire for their flyers.

The number of Wraiths has increased since separated forces from the crash landing of 'the Prophet's vengeance', reuniting with their main army. 8 Wraiths in total, firing high in the sky and launching their heavy plasma bombardment at the city, damaging city streets, tearing apart tall structures.

Wherever the plasma hit, rubble would fall onto the streets and alleyways below. If they were taller, the debris would even fall on top of other structures. The chaos was getting very out of hand, Moles running around in panic, unable to mount a coordinated effort. Darst and Shin were in the very midst of it as they traversed the panicking Moles and whatever plasma bombardment that fell on top of them.

"Grrrrr, Wraith fire!" Darst shouted he watched another plasma bomb flew overhead.

"Alright I'm sorry Darst, I've got to leave you here for the moment. Meet me at the top of that wall and make sure you get up there. I rather not be the only Sangheili up there coordinating a bunch of furballs" Shin cut across the cobblestone street roads and ran over to damage building nearby, meters away separated from the front wall.

Darst span around quickly, "Shin? What are you doing?" he called out to him as he started climbing up the ruins.

Tarscar, having seen how enhanced his abilities are in combat, decided to take things a step further. Above him was a level of the building he couldn't reach normally, so he took his chances. Within a second, his mind sent messages down to his cybernetics, the ones that enhanced his abilities including his legs and muscles.

Taking those orders into account, the cybernetics consumed more power from his second plasma producing heart, his athleticism increased dramatically, and he jumped up to the higher level with a large up to that level. Although the feeling of plasma and machinery inside of him hurt his chest a bit, but was easily shrugged off after a second or two.

Darst's eyes widened in shock. No other Elite could reach that kind of height with a single jump. It all became apparent that even with years of experience, large physique and raw strength can easily be bested by the younger and mechanical being.

"Good lord…I give up on how those robotics work" Darst just shook his head and continued to traverse the panicking soldiers, eventually making it to a entrance of the front wall, climbing lots and lots of stairs. Even those stairs had Moles running up and down them.

Shin, after climbing up the building like a slick and agile insect, eventually ran across the rooftop over to the front wall of Warfang, easily able make it over and land with almost no problem whatsoever. His teeth shove, bone and metallic, gleaned the shine off from the sun as he growled from inside his neck. As Moles tried to regain their coordination and strength, running backwards and forwards with Banshees flying overhead, Shin stared at the largest Jiralhanae army ever to have been formed.

He scanned every single inch of this grand force. Fields covered in brown, black and grey furred Brutes, covered in golden, blue and violet armor, with a speck of dark gold, black and red armor as well for Chieftains. Ghosts, Choppers and the few amounts of Prowlers that have rejoined their main army along with the Wraith survivors. Numerous Phantoms and Banshees were spotted hovering and flying over the main army as well, showing their true air force in full view.

Shin gasped in horror as he took into account of what Warfang was up against…a truly mighty Covenant army, packed to the brim with savage Jiralhanae warriors. With the battering they've received from the Apes, combining that with the dive bombing attacks from the Banshee wave…were they still able to mount an effectives resistance to even challenge Magnaruckus's army?

"This is it my brothers! Our final push towards their ultimate annihilation! All that has been lost, all that our brothers have fought and died for has led us to this final confrontation with the insects behind those walls. They cower in fear behind their barriers, cry in fright as our Banshees lay waste to their homes…they are helpless against our wrath!" Magnaruckus was shouting out to all of his disciples on the ground, standing on the left side of an open door Phantom.

His voice could be even heard to Shin's position, catching some of the Moles including a suddenly arriving Darst and Blacksmith Mole leader. All they could do was listen to Mag's speech, and watch as the Wraiths continued to unleash plasma fire from a long distance away.

"They shall hide no more! Today we destroy their resistance! Today we kill the last remaining Sangheili of the Shadow of Intent! Today we shall eradicate Thel Vadam and all of his closest companions from the face of the galaxy once and for all! Go my brothers! Attack! For the glory of the Jiralahane race and the Covenant!" Magnaruckus pointed out towards Warfang with one straight finger.

The sea of roars and growls have finally been unleashed as the Jiralhanae hordes ran and sprinted towards the city's front wall, going absolutely berserk charging towards their primitive enemies. Ground vehicles traversed their infantry forces, charging straight in and firing heavy cannons from the Choppers and repeated plasma bolts from Ghosts and Prowlers. It was a tidal wave of savagery and hunger, driving towards the city's already devastated defenses.

Darst stepped back in horror, gasping for any breath he could suck in as he watched the army roll towards them, "We're doomed…we're ultimately doomed!" he exclaimed with a slight shriek in his voice.

**Big army finally unveiled! Yay! A new chapter done! Yay! Hordes of Brutes coming to absolutely murder the characters that I've been developing for a while! Ya-oh wait…**

**Anyways, hope this has gotten you guys back on my side and I hope you've enjoyed this chapter. Take care and I'll catch yous next time **


	71. Overwhelming

**Hey guys, back once again (after another few months away) to bring you yet another chapter and draw ever closer to the finale of this story. Considering I'm finishing college for year this week, I'll finally have the time to get this story finished! Sorry again for making you wait but eh, we all have a life to live so I think you'd all be fine with the no contact thing again…anyways, to the battle!**

**On another note, I've just been reading the first half of my story in ages and…oh boy, I feel a little embarrassed by how it's done earlier on…**

**EDIT: Well…that time I mentioned after I finished college?...Well I got a job as an apprentice at a restaurant and the work hours are…diabolical…so who knows when this story is going to be finished now because I barely get the motivation anymore…**

The majority of the army was finally at the gates, stampeding across the landscape towards the battered, burning city of Warfang. Hordes of Jiralhanae, thirsty for the blood of their enemies, groaned and roared as they charged headlong towards the front wall. Their remaining air forces followed through with this charge, Banshee reinforcements flying overhead towards the defenses on top of the wall, escorting Mag's remaining Phantoms to the city so they could insert more packs of the vile beasts into battle quicker.

The cannons that have survived the first wave immediately trained their sights onto the rushing enemy forces, desperate gunners trying to obtain targets they could take down effectively. The Banshees were too fast for them this time around, and so they concentrated their firepower on the dropships, unleashing a barrage of hot cannon fire into their unshielded hulls. Of the 13 fireballs fired, 8 made their targets, 5 merely damaging the outer armor of the Phantoms whilst the other 3 took down a dropship each, wrecking their engines and causing them to crash into the ground violently.

Outraged by this, the 4 of the Banshees went completely fanatical to their devotion to Chieftain Magnaruckus. Only 4 of the cannons were still standing, and so there was 1 for each Banshee to kamikaze into…

"THEY'RE GONNA HIT!" One of the gunners immediately bailed from his seat in the cannon, "GET DOWN!" As a Mole captain shouted to his troops as the fast moving ground attack aircraft boosted their speed and collided into their targets with such destructive results. Some Mole warriors were caught in their kamikaze paths, completely obliterating the last of the cannon defenses and creating high breaches into the pathways of the frontal wall.

It was total chaos! The crazy baboons had not only destroyed the best defenses that the Moles had against a vulnerable army out the front of the gates, but the suicide attacks had also struck even more fear and confusion into the hearts and minds of the inhabitants. The Brutes are completely devoted to the destruction of Warfang now, throwing their best resources into the heat of the battle, their best fighters and vehicles now implemented into this genocidal campaign…how far was Magnaruckus really going to take this?

Darst was finding that out the hard way…as he opened his eyes slowly, he found his vision to be blurred out, being near completely deaf from the explosion nearby from one of the cannons that was obliterated by one of the 4 kamikaze Banshees. As his vision started to slowly clear, he moaned softly as he found himself laying on the rough ground on top of the wall. Moles were panicking and haste-fully trying to obtain new orders from their troop commander right in front the crimson Sangheili. As the ringing in Kino's hearing started to clear, he could hear a familiar voice calling his name.

His hearing finally cleared up as the words, "Darst!...DARST!" got his attention at least, and his head was picked up and brought to the Blacksmith Leader's face, "If you died right there and then, you'd be disappointing a lot of us! Come on, the savages are at the front gates" he ordered Darst to jump at once as the Brutes eventually reached the front gates, desperately trying to break through so they can flood in and lay waste to the Dragon city with their own barbaric hands.

"Unnggg…suicidal morons! I thought only Unggoy could pull stunts off like that" Darst groaned heavily as he stood up tall and picked up his fallen modified Concussion Rifle.

"Apparently Magnaruckus got his underlings to follow the same protocol…if the enemy destroys something you're protecting, take your brave pills and throw yourself into them and cause as much damage as possible…" Shin walked up behind Kino and took his Spikers into both of his hands.

Darst ran to the front edge of the front wall and took in a deep breath as he watched the Brutes below aggressively trying to break through the front gates with their weapons and sheer muscle. Some look up as Moles pointed crossbows and threw spears at the hungry looking beasts. It was a massive crossfire between the 2 forces, and the more technological force always held the primitive Moles at bay with their Ghosts and Choppers now taking charge into battering down the front wall.

"If only this shooting gallery didn't fire back!" Kino growled angrily as he sprayed and prayed Concussion plasma at the Brute, unloading an entire clip into their troops. Kino and the Blacksmith Leader did the same, crossbow and Spikers aiming downwards and firing to no end to keep the invaders at bay. And whilst some gruesome headshots were made, the return fire of plasma, spikes and Fuel rods made it hard to ensure full suppression on the hordes who were the real culprits trying to bust down the gates.

What made it all the more harder was evading the heavy bombardment fire from the Wraiths who had no intention of moving from their artillery position. Even with Brutes now being deployed in several hotspots in the city, albeit nowhere near the Grand Atrium, the colossal blue plasma was still knocking down structural integrity of whatever buildings that were unfortunate enough to be victims of the Covenant mortar tanks.

And that wasn't even the start of it. Phantoms, Banshees, oh my! The Jiralhanae air force was now in full swing, strafing and bombing wherever they please with almost no consequences apart from the captured anti-vehicle weapons being used by Moles and Cheetahs, especially the highly accurate Tetrestu who made every Brute pilot regret their decision to bomb around his radius of Plasma launching lock on.

But other than this, the air force was virtually unstoppable…nothing could compete with their speed and their agility, no competition in the air whatsoever to oppose the might of the Banshee ground attack craft…

That was until one Brute pilot encountered the one creature Magnaruckus desired its death the most…

"We've got the skies brothers! Commence our bombings against the massive tower in the cent-WHAT IN THE GALAXYS?!" A Brute pilot exclaimed in horror as he felt a massive quake throughout his Banshee, losing system integrity and power loss to both of his wing mounted engines.

Outside, his Banshee had been completely by the acidic nature of the poison element. Not only it worked against organic material, but its essence also contained the very acidic nature known to eat metal like it was candy. The green goo was eating into the Banshee's hull, cutting of the wings and burning into the central fuselage of the Banshee. In mere seconds, it fell out of the sky and crashed into the ground near a dropship hotspot.

The goo was produced by a diving dragoness, completely enshrouded by the sun's brightness to conceal her fast moving attacks. Cynder, in her shining silver armor, dove like lightning straight from the gods themselves, tightening her wings to increase her speed. She was as fast as the enemy fast movers themselves!

Immediately, her wings spread out, she pulled herself up from near hitting the cobblestone ground to get under the view of another enemy Banshee. It was completely unaware of Cynder's ascendance, and so, with the speed she gathered from her dive, she flew towards the enemy aircraft with narrowed down eyes, knowing what she needed to do in order to completely disable her next prey.

Her scythe like tail was at the ready, closing in on the Banshee's position. As soon as got within a mere few meters of the Covenant craft, she spun her tail around furiously, "HYAAAAA!" she yelled desperately, using her incredibly sharp blade to slice through the right wing of the Banshee, making a clean cut open on the 2 main wing parts and separated the engine from the Banshee's fuselage. With just one main engine now, the pilot couldn't keep the vessel in its main cruising trajectory, spinning around uncontrollably and suffering the same fate as Cynder's previous Banshee kill.

As it turned out, the enemy did not have air superiority as they first thought. Cynder, the beautiful black dragoness, a creature of mere organic and powerful elemental material, now clad in her stunning silver "Arbiter" like armor was a match for even the best of Magnaruckus's pilots and war machines…a shameful display from the point of view from the Brutes…a hopeful message to her allies.

She stabilized her flight to a cruising speed so she could position herself for another boom and zoom attack into another Jiralhanae Banshee, deep in thought of her current situation as she watches a whole army down below try to breach through the front gate. _"No…they're already breaking through…Nnggggg!" _Cynder slowly grew aggravated, knowing she already made it personal to deal with the vehicularthreat in the air before having to deal with the menace on the ground. But it was just horrifying to her eyes, watching the city's defenders be pushed back and slaughtered by the Jiralhanae army.

As her sight scanned the front wall of Warfang, suddenly she spotted Brutes jumping up high and clinging to the wall halfway then climbing up. Her maw gapped widely at this surprising, supposed athleticism, "That's impossible! They're three times as heavy as Thel is!..." That was her thoughts in the moment, but as she took a better look, there was exhaust coming from their backsides. These were Jetpack Brutes, and they were going to clear the remaining defenses on the front wall.

"Climb pack brothers! CLIMB!" A Brute Captain with a Jetpack shouted as more of his subordinates jumped to his level. Soon enough, they got to the top, with the Captain roaring loudly and grabbing a Mole warrior by his head and tossing him over the wall and back down to where all the vicious Jiralhanae were. The scream from that Mole immediately alerted his comrades of the deadly threat that they stood against.

"BRUTES! BRUTES ON THE WALL!" A Mole gatekeeper shouted, bearing a spear and shiny green armor, grabbing the Blacksmith Mole's, Shin's and Darst's attention. Kino barred his teeth and took the rifle into his right hand, with an Energy sword in his left. Shin's quick cybernetic reflexes quickly pulled out 2 Spikers from his thighs and positioned himself behind Darst, with the Blacksmith Mole's crossbow aimed down towards their enemies,

"Mole, aim for the gaps in their legs armor to slow them down. If you can, aim for their eyes" Darst ordered his Mole ally as the other furry warriors either panicked and retreated, or stood against impossible odds, "Tarscar, move with me. Don't slow down…" Kino then gave orders to his cyborg ally, looking back towards him.

"Order confirmed my friend…finally, we can exact true vengeance for our fallen brothers of the Shadow of Intent" Shin's mandibles made a faint smile, keeping his aim steady.

Darst made a sigh of relief, "I've been waiting for this moment for so long Shin…since we arrived here…" even Darst felt happy to be in this moment, to take up arms against the Jiralhanae that sealed the Shadow's fate.

"You were a bit of a crazy beast when you first came here Zealot, I saw what happened to the Library…" the Blacksmith leader reminded Darst of their first night here…when the Sangheili had gone absolutely insane in the membrane and burnt down Warfang's Library, "So I was a little angry and delusional. At least I didn't hurt anybody…except for Cynder…and Thel…" Kino grumbled with guilt in his mouth.

"And when you threw Thel into Hunter, don't forget that one." Shin mentioned quickly. Darst's top eyelids dropped halfway on his eyes, now chuckling quietly, "I laughed a little inside when I did that…" but Darst shook his head and stared deathly towards the incoming Jiralhanae, "Sangheili ahead! Glory to our Chieftain!" a Brute shouted as he raised his Brute shot and ran towards 3 of the best fighters on the Resistance's side.

"Alright, focus. Be quick, be precise, and show no mercy!" Darst growled, raising his Concussion Rifle and blade.

"For the fallen Sangheili of our mighty Shadow of Intent!" Shin roared with might.

"For Warfang and all her inhabitants!" the Blacksmith leader shouted.

"For Rtas…For Ventor…For our mighty Arbiter!" Darst shouted at the top of his lungs, charging towards the Brutes with no fear, no hesitation. Shin and the Blacksmith Leader followed bravely behind him, willing to fight alongside him until they finally meet their deaths at the hands of the Jiralhanae.

The Brutes however continued to barrage towards the 3 warriors, pushing and crushing whatever Moles stood in their way. Their Jetpack Captain took out his Brute shot and fired a grenade projectile towards Darst, which was immediately countered by skillfully fired spikes from Shin's Spikers. As the smoke between the 2 forces started dissipating, Darst broke through the smoke with his rifle raised, firing 2 large plasma bolts at the Brutes next to the Jetpack Captain, the force of the explosions was so large they both were forced off the wall and sent screaming down to the ground.

The Blacksmith leader fired 2 arrows from his crossbow, and thanks to the explosion radius of the Concussion's projectiles, the Jetpack Captain's shield were damaged enough for an arrow to impale the knees of each leg, giving Darst the opportunity to horizontally slash the Brute's stomach. Sparks and blood flew, killing the Captain outright. Shin had already passed Kino as he slashed the Brute Captain, firing sharp projectiles towards the Brutes with absolute deadly efficiency thanks to his cybernetic enhancements.

The 3 kept charging, with the Blacksmith leader shooting arrows into the eyes of a climbing Brute Jet Packer that Tarscar had passed by. Kino kept up with Shin, slashing and cutting down any Brutes that got near the Cyborg Sangheili. Some Brute shooters that were keeping their distance from the Zealot and Cyborg were trying to keep their Spikers trained on them, but our Blacksmith Mole's dead eye was able to pull the trigger on their necks quicker than they could properly aim. He was definitely keeping his stamina up along with Shin and Darst and the black armored Mole continued to charge alongside them.

The battle hardened Brutes weren't able to stop their onslaught as they pushed through their Jetpack warriors were cut down. Darst impaled another Brute and used him as a meat shield for the next barrage of spikes that came, using his immense strength to carry the Brute in his sword's grasp whilst keeping up with the team. He fired 3 more Concussion bolts towards the Jiralhanae, pushing them, blowing them away and keeping them at bay whilst Shin and the Blacksmith Mole cut them down with precision.

Cynder watched this brave act with a stunned mind, she couldn't believe the risk those 3 were taking. Charging a whole horde of Brutes with just quick thinking and immense luck. However this luck was about to end as a Banshee came around to stop the 3 in their tracks. Her voice grumbled deeply and she flew towards it on an intercept course.

The Jiralhanae inside this dive bombing Banshee chuckled as he closed in on Darst, Shin and the Blacksmith leader, readying the fuel rod bomb bay. It came screaming in with its sound piercing engines, causing the Mole to look up and shout, "INCOMING!" to the Sangheili.

Darst and Shin looked up in shock as they continued charging, knowing exactly what that ground attacker was going to do. However, Cynder slipped in behind the Banshee's trail, unleashing a shadow ball from her maw and directly hit its back left fuselage, causing the Brute to pull off from his attack and use the energy built up in his dive and try to evade his new pursuer.

"Good show Dragoness!" the Blacksmith Mole shouted with enthusiasm, clenching his left empty fist. Darst's smirk came to an abrupt end as more Spiker fire passed by him, raising the dead Brute on his Energy sword again and continued their battle against the Jet Packers.

Heavily damaged from the shadow ball, the Banshee pilot was doing his best to not get hit a second time as Cyn relentlessly pursued him, tailing just a few meters behind him. She gritted her teeth as the exhaust and the smoke from the damage of the aircraft covered her face, coughing violently.

As the pilot continued to evade her, another threat loomed above the Dragoness. 2 Banshees were slipping in behind Cynder, coming to the aid of the damaged craft. Considering it was already loud enough in her hearing, she wasn't aware of the new threat as their engine sounds were the exact same as her target was.

"Fire you fools! Kill the freak flyer!" shouted the Jiralhanae pilot that was being chased, demanding his wing-mates to take the Dragoness down with a fierce volley of plasma fire. Out of nowhere, blue bolts of plasma started passing by Cynder at an alarming rate.

"Wha-?" she curved her head around gasped in horror, immediately diving down into a barrel roll, "By the ancestors these apes never give up! They're all over the place!" she growled as she evaded left and right, doing the best she could to avoid such a fury of light blue death.

She was shrieking in fright, the plasma was getting dangerously close to hitting her, some of it sizzling by her as she dodged for her life. She was at this point starting to run out of tricks to make the enemy flyers miss their mark. She couldn't take anymore, flying at a cruising speed that allowed the Banshees to lock on to her with their plasma cannons. "This little one is finally mine…Magnaruckus will reward me greatly for this achievement! DIE FREAK FLYER!" One of the Jiralhanae pursuers laughed manically as he pulled the trigger. At the same second though, Cynder collapsed her wings and did a screwdriver maneuver under a Banshee that was coming head on with her and the chasers. This Banshee immediately fired its plasma cannons and fuel rod bomb at the same time, destroying both attackers at the same time and barrel rolling out of the way of their wreckage paths into the ground.

This new Banshee that made Cynder evade under it was of a completely different design. It was the version that's been in use during the Fall of Reach, a much sleeker and more alien structure compared to the vehicle that's in use by the Jiralhanae at the moment.

The black dragoness turned her head, casually watching her pursuers fall out of the sky. A moment later her savior flew alongside, slightly opening its reflective cowling to reveal the pilot.

"Thel?!" her shock got the Arbiter chuckling, surprised that she didn't expect him to fly the city's only Banshee craft, "How do you always get yourself in the mix with Brutes…" he questioned her with a tilt of his head, still showing a smirk. She simply growled and chuckled herself, but all jokes were tossed aside as a Phantom, escorted by 2 Banshees including the one Cynder damaged, were flying towards hotspot where Brutes were pushing through a large defense force of Moles and Cheetahs, just many blocks away from the entrance of the Grand Atrium.

"Let's concentrate our firepower on the dropship Cyn, we'll take care of the escorts afterwards" Arbiter suggested as he closed the canopy and attempted to position his craft into a good position to dive in, bomb the Phantom and make a quick getaway without the Banshees chasing him down easily. Cynder nodded and followed him in. When they were about to attack however, a question came to the Dragoness's frail mind, "Thel…I'm getting worried about Spyro…I haven't seen him at all since…" she couldn't find the courage to sum up the rest of her sentence.

"You have to focus Cynder! I'm sure Spyro has taken into account of what's happening, so don't dwell on him until you spot him" Arbiter responded frantically whilst trying to see the best possible hit and run course for his attack. Unbeknownst to him however, and ironically nailing his 'focus' comment, 2 Brute Banshees were flying towards them head on, causing the black dragoness to alert her Sangheili wing-mate and immediately unleash a ball of shadow energy, collapsing her wings and diving down to evade a possible head on collision.

"ARBITER WATCH OUT!" She screamed out to Vadam, her voice completely high pitched to the point where it near broke unintentionally. Arbiter's attention immediately turned towards the head on fighter craft, seeing the one Cynder shoot a shadow ball at completely evade the attack and fired a volley of plasma along with its comrade.

The Arbiter gritted his teeth tightly as he pulled the craft upwards, evading the fire and ascending upwards into the sky, allowing the 2 Jiralhanae controlled Banshees to follow him up and trail in behind him. With Cynder having to descend in order to avoid her own demise, this completely wrecked their effort to coordinate together, she was too low, too slow and out of built up energy from her dive to catch up with the 3 Covenant. Nevertheless, with a gasp of breath, she put her wing muscles to work and flew up towards them.

As Thel's Banshee continued to ascend upwards higher into the sky, he thought of a maneuver that would completely catch these 2 pursuers by surprise. Having built up enough energy in his steep climb, he made a U-turn like maneuver with his craft and dived back down onto his attackers.

"GAH! SPLIT FORMATION, NOW!" One of the Brutes shouted out, immediately causing both Banshees to split away from the diving Sangheili. Pressing down on the triggers, Thel fired a barrage of plasma at one of the splitting Banshees, directly hitting with most bolts and damaging its left wing mounted booster, severely hurting its speed and evasion potential.

Arbiter continued to dive however, knowing there was still a Phantom he spotted earlier. Cynder saw her ally break through the clouds with the pursuers still on his tail, having recovered from their split. Moving out of the way to let Thel dive, she pumped her wings towards the damaged Banshee, knowing it was much slower to start diving, straggling behind his wingmate. Unable to avoid her in time, the Brute had to watch Cynder cling onto the still operational wing.

She wanted to knock these 2 out with definite efficiency, and having one act in mind, the black dragoness clenched her claws tightly into the metal of the Covenant attack craft, flapping her wings heavily and putting as much strength as she possibly could into altering the Banshee's dive course, taking advantage of its damaged wing and pointing towards the other Brute fighter. Confident with her assumptions, she looked at the healthier engine and blew it off a shadow ball, completely disabling most of the Banshee's evasion abilities. Turning her body around, the dragoness held in her breath, puffing up her chest largely, and unleashed a huge gust of wind from her Wind element, the speed of this wind enough to be compared to the power of the strongest of Earth's Tornadoes.

This violently increased the diving speed of the Banshee, causing to go even faster than that of the boosters of a Banshee, catching up to its wingmate easily. At this speed, Cynder couldn't hold on any longer, receding her claws from the metal and opening up her wings, forcefully pulling her off and making her float upwards thanks to her wings acting as an organic parachute.

Unable to warn his pack brother in time, the violently diving Banshee slammed and collided straight into the other craft in the midst of such a deadly dive, as they were still chasing Thel who had reached bombing range of the Phantom he prioritized earlier. Firing one fuel bomb, it smashed into the main upper hull and severely weakened the dropship's anti-gravity stabilizers, slowly falling towards the ground. Its escort in panic decided to fly off in different directions, unable to catch up from an altitude regaining Thel.

Vadam did look back and smirk at his hit and run tactic, knowing that will surely hinder their landing zone. However, his two bottom mandibles dropped when he finally took a look at where his pursuers were…only to find out that their wreckages dropped out of the sky and double whammied the same Phantom, completely obliterating all Covenant craft and destroying the landing zone entirely, as well as the Brutes around them.

Cynder flew in and rejoined her ally, panting quietly from her act. She turned to see if Thel was alright when he slightly opened the main fuselage, revealing his still shocked face, "What…was that?..." he questioned her with absolute stun, unable to shake it off. All she could answer was, with a playful smirk "Something I'll never be able to repeat ever again…" she laughed with a hint of breathlessness.

Unfortunately though, as they had chance to catch their breath and reunite for the moment, a Brute controlled Phantom descended upon the unwary Sangheili and Dragoness, pointing its main frontal Plasma cannon towards them, and firing just a few volts. Arbiter's Banshee was immediately hit by 2 powerful hits, roar in shock and fall out of formation with Cynder, who was abandoned unintentionally.

"RAAGGH! BY THE FORERUNNERS! I'M HIT! I CAN'T CONTROL HER! CYNDER WATCH OUT!" He shouted desperately, fighting to gain control of his craft as he descended towards ground like all his fallen flying adversaries. To her gasp of horror, Cyn looked behind her and saw the dropship turn its side around, revealing Magnaruckus smiling with his Fist of Rukt pointing it directly at her.

"Surprise Cynder!" Magnaruckus chuckled heartedly, charging the Rukt's in built weapon that was able to heavily stun any organic, according to what Tartarus has done with it in the past. Cynder wasn't wasting any time to build up a ball of shadow energy in maw, but was too little too late to prevent a jolt of lightning from the Fist of Rukt, completely electrifying the dragoness and forcing her into the ground below, nullifying her attack and making a high pitched scream as the electricity surged through her body, colliding into a cube like building.

A plume of smoke clouded her impact, concealing her fate. Magnaruckus however, laughed with a deep bellow to it. He had finally made the dragoness pay heavily for her attack on his eye, still retaining the large claw scar that looks to have turned very dark red ever since that night in the meadow, settling into his body for the rest of his life.

"This battle couldn't be any easier Jikartus, we're slaughtering this pathetic excuse for a defense! Even their best warriors pale in comparison to our mighty Jiralhanae" he gleaned his teeth in satisfaction, lowering his weapon and standing it by his side.

Jikartus slowly walked up to his Chieftain's side, staring down at the building Cynder collided into. His expression revealed he wasn't as thrilled as his leader was…in fact, he showed concern. Murmuring quietly. Magnaruckus failed to notice Jikartus in this state over his mini victory laugh.

"Ahhhhhh, now then, let her rest in pieces. Pilot, take us to the front gates of this withering city. The main force is having a tough time breaking through it" the massive Chieftain turned his mass around and walked towards the cockpit, placing a large hand onto the Brute pilot's shoulder. Jikartus sighed deeply, looking away from the damaged building that Cynder crashed into.

At the collision site, Mag's Phantom was slowly drifting away until its engines powered up, thrusting the dropship forward and flying away from the area. After the dropship was far away enough, a large pile of rubble was pushed out of Cynder's way as she climbed her way out of the destruction, groaning deeply as she shook off whatever was left of the shock to her body.

It appeared she had taken no permanent damage even to the armor, other than scratches and small dents. The dragoness turned towards Mag's Phantom and unveiled and very vicious expression, glaring her teeth and growling in outrage. Her attention was soon turned away however when the thought of Thel came to her mind.

Knowing Arbiter still had some control over his craft, Cynder was about to take off and find a small smoke stack that would've pinpointed his Banshee's position. That just wasn't meant to be however as a Brute roared with a Gravity Hammer in hand. "I FOUND THE FREAK FLYER!" the Brute Chieftain shouted as he swung his hammer towards the dragoness.

She reacted with almost feline like reflexes, immediately jumping onto the hammer as it was swung and jumping off the head before making contact with the rubble. Cyn used her airborne time to fly past the Chieftain's head, but used her scythe like tail blade to latch onto the Brute's neck and pull him down, cutting his throat and his supply of oxygen. Cynder groaned as she landed, pulling down the titan of a Brute with her that crashed into the ground, kicking up some cobblestones and dust.

Her fight wasn't over yet. Cynder's victory smile quickly frowned as she spotted a pack of Jiralhanae that was led by this Chieftain, about 2 dozen members. Roars, growls and a bad temper is all that could be heard as they stared at their leader's corpse from 200 meters away.

"Our Chieftain has fallen! Make the flyer suffer for her crimes against the mighty Jiralhanae" a Brute Captain bearing gold like armor shouted, raising his Brute Shot alongside his comrades armed with Carbines and Spikers. Cynder wasn't going to run however, she bore her sharp teeth and lowered to the ground like a predator ready to stand her ground. Even the sight of Covenant weapons, the snarls of blood thirsty savages, does not deter her. Impossible odds her not, she was going to stand up for herself and the city of Warfang against these monstrosities.

"MISS! GET TO COVER!" A Mole voice shouted to her, calling her to move to a safer location away from the cobblestone road. "Wha?" she lifter her head in surprise, turning to the rooftops of the untouched buildings that soon sprouted Cheetahs and Moles, ambushing the approaching Jiralhane.

"We sprung a trap Pack Captain!" a Brute Minor shouted as he aimed his Spiker to the rooftops, only to be shot in the left eye with an arrow from a Cheetah marksman. "RAGGGGHHHH! I THOUGHT OUR SHIELDS ARE SUPPOSED TO PROTECT US!" the eye shot Brute cried out in pain, causing the rest of the pack to return fire at the rooftop warriors. "Against Covenant and Humans weapons you fool! The weapons they use are completely primitive! Shields will not react to arrows and spears" the Captain growled in frustration, revealing the reason why Covenant shields are not working against such old and obsolete armament.

Whilst the 2 opposing forces engaged each other, Cynder, who was in cover behind some large barrels questioned herself whether to help these Moles and Cheetahs engage the Brutes, or go look for Thel. Taking a look out from cover, it was clear they needed aid.

The Brute shot was destroying all sorts of cover, clearing and destroying the stone barriers that the Moles and Cheetahs was using to protect themselves. As Spiker and Carbine projectiles hit their opponents, some warriors fell back in pain and died quickly. Others however, like a Cheetah who was just impaled by 3 spikes, fell forward and crashed into the ground. This one landed right of Cynder, making her shriek in fright. "Ahh! Gahh…I can't…I have to help these people…Ambush or not they don't stand a chance without some assistance…hang on…" Cynder quickly came up with an idea that could turn the tide of this firefight, jumping over the Cheetah's corpse and facing towards the Jiralhanae pack.

"Hey!" she shouted to grab most of the group's attention, still standing in the middle of the cobblestone road without any care of return fire. An elemental attack welled up inside the dragoness, one of her darker powers that's used to stun and incapacitate the enemy…the same kind of power that was used against Shenko during their battle as Dark Cynder.

Her maw opened wide, and came forth was over 8 balls of energy, containing the Fear element inside them, and launched into the air and towards the front of the pack. "WHAT DID SHE….SHOOT THEM! SHOOT THEM DOWN!" The Brute Captain shouted, frantically fire his Brute shot followed by Carbine and Spiker fire. They went through the Phantom balls like butter, but they were still on course for their targets. One of them being the captain.

They collided right into 8 faces. For a moment it was simple pain…but immediately red flashes of their greatest fears to them, their eyes widening in fright and started to scream in fright. The Jiralhanae that weren't affected by Fear was in shock of what became of their comrades.

"I see them all around me! They're everywhere! THE FLOOD! IT HAS EVOLVED!...No…NO KEEP THEM AWAY FROM ME! I DON'T WANT TO BE ONE OF THEM! NOOOOOOO!" The Brute captain's main fear obviously the Parasite, having fought them close and personal and have seen what the infection was capable of.

The screams, the agony, rolling on the ground in terror seeing their greatest fears come to life when in reality, Cynder's element was taking a heavy toll on them…and their morale.

Seeing the opportunity to counter attack, a Cheetah called out, "Now! Hit them with everything we got!" and unleashed another volley of arrows mixed in with captured Covenant firearms like Plasma Pistols and rifles. Whilst the plasma damaged their shielding, the arrows were mostly aimed in the caps of their arm, mostly notably aiming for their necks and knees. The non-affected Brutes were in serious trouble as their heavy hitters were lost to them being battered with heavy fire and falling one by one to the precise fire made by Moles and the Cheetah warriors, yet some still shrugging the arrows hitting their armor.

Cynder ran up to this messed up pack, jumping up and using her wings to gain some more air. With this airtime, she unleashed a large shadow ball into the midst of the Jiralhanae, exploding in the center of them and sent Brute flying in different directions.

It was chaos for the Jiralhanae. Cynder's power far exceeded their expectations, they had no idea what they were truly up against. 2 completely unharmed Jiralhanae turned tail and ran whilst the injured and the Fear affected beasts were left to Cynder's wrath. She landed and sprinted towards the Brute Captain who was still screaming from images of the Flood. The dragoness jumped on top of the Captain, her weight combined with her armor gathered just enough forces to keep him laying on his backside, and proceeded to pull off his helmet. This allowed her to slash across his face with her razor-sharp claws, combining it with her Poison element.

Knowing it'd be only minutes until the neuro-toxins and viruses would shut down all vital organs in his body, the dragoness pounced to the nearest Brute who still held his Carbine from the Shadow ball explosion, getting up and firing shots towards her. In his panicked state however he completely missed Cynder and point black range, letting the dragoness latch onto him and claw his eyes out. She used the mass of this Brute's body to push it into another stumbling Brute who tried his best to get up from the blast. He fell back onto his bottom as the other dying Brute collided into him, with Cynder walking up to him and slashing the Brute's face with her tail blade right between his helmet view hole.

Although the poison has certainly taken a fatal toll on the Brute Captain already, with his skin corroding horrifically and his eyes becoming more bloodshot, he was nevertheless willing to give his life as long as he was able to kill Cynder. He turned his body over to crawl on the ground, reaching for his Brute shot. But he was an easily spotted target, as 3 arrows flew into the gaps of his armor, his neck, his backside and his right arm. The sounds of flying arrows captured the dragoness's attention, seeing why they were fired. She looked up back towards her allies and shouted, "Are you all ok?" in the hopes they were still capable of fighting.

"Yes dragoness! Although we have a few casualties on our side as well but we can take the bruisers from here. Thank you for your critical assistance" A Cheetah bearing a blue cloak replied back to her.

Immediately she went straight to her most desired need, "Did any of you by any chance see a large Dropship attack a Banshee from behind? Did you see it land or..or crash?" Cynder was really hoping for the former…

"As a matter of fact I did" a Mole wearing heavy armor and a crossbow in hands, "Whoever controlled it was able to land the war machine just outside the front of the Grand Atrium. I wouldn't take flight at the moment though miss, enemy flyers have got a bit too much strength at the moment" he explained practically everything she needed to know. However, flying was dangerous for a frail target like her, especially she's been a thorn in the Brute air force's side for a while now.

"Grand Atrium?" she exclaimed in excitement, knowing the Atrium is in good hands by the most highly trained and most experienced warriors carrying a mix of captured Covenant weapons with their crossbows and spears. Heavier Covie weapons too.

"Yes miss, but you best hurry. We haven't got much time before-" the heavily armored Mole was quickly interrupted by the alert of a grave threat, "ENEMY BOMBARDMENT! INCOMING!" A Cheetah shouted as loud as he could as he pointed out a barrage of large blue plasma mortars, most definitely launched from the Wraith tanks.

"The surviving Jiralhanae must have called it in…GO DRAGONESS! GET TO SAFETY!" The blue cloak Cheetah raised his voice down to the dragoness, demanding her to get to safety. Cyn turned back from plasma bombing and nodded her head, immediately sprinting away from the site of combat here on this road.

"But what about you and your troops? You have to get out of here or you'll be caught in the blast zones!" she shouted back to them, worrying over their situation. "Forget about us! You and your friends have a city to save! Get out of here, no-" as the Cheetah group leader expressed his demands for Cynder to leave this area, one of the Wraith Plasma mortars directly hit their rooftop, completely devastating it, sending shrapnel and rubble in every direction. Cynder lifted her left wing to cover her face from carnage and destruction.

The Cheetah warrior, along with 3 others completely disintegrated from the raw plasma that consumed them, whilst the rest of their group on this rooftop was sent screaming and flying away, into the ground below. The Heavily armored Mole that told Cynder of Thel's landing site was falling from the rooftop. The rest of their ambush force from the other side of street, albeit in cover, watched in horror as half of their troops were annihilated in a blink of an eye. Their comrades, their companions, their friends!...Forever lost to them.

Their faces, along with Cynder's, were in complete disbelief and shock, their hearts pierced with imaginary daggers. Grief overshadowed those few seconds of shock, as the rest of the Wraith bombardment came down around them. The dragoness's teeth, clenched together tightly, greatly exposed, and one tear pouring from her right eye, turned away in horror. She muttered only a few words as she reopened her eyes and continued to run on, "We can't go on like this for too long…it's just…pure slaughter!" she shook her head, making the tear disappear as she left the bombardment area.

Back at the Front Gate to Warfang, the situation was growing dire. Most of the defenders up top were being heavily pushed back, thrown in complete disarray by the heavy numbers of Jetpack Brutes coming up onto the top of the wall. Fire continued to trade, but eventually the Jiralhanae gained the advantage when the fall back order was called.

"Fall back!" a Mole captain exclaimed to his troops, "We can't hold this position any longer! Get to the city streets, we'll hold them off from the buildings, the streets, anywhere on our soil!" he explained indefinitely, ensuring them that there's still tactical options available to the defenders.

However this meant that Darst's and his group's fall back plan has gone to shambles. The Jiralhanae was now cutting them off from the nearest downstairs route back to the city streets.

Kino himself, just hearing the announcement made by this Mole captain, was finishing off a dying Jiralhanae laying on the ground. He pulled out his Energy sword from the corpse and watched as the Brutes encircled their position, aiming his Concussion rifle at them, still sword in hand. "Shin, we're cut off" Darst warned his cyborg compatriot as he walked back to back, Tarscar with 2 Spikers in hand.

The Blacksmith Leader fell back towards his alien allies, reloading his crossbow and aimed towards the approaching Brutes, "Gentlemen we're in a bit of a pickle here" he solemnly spoke, knowing this may very be their end.

"Damn them all to the bowels of hell…we never had a chance no matter what we did" Darst whispered, only hearable by his 2 comrades. "We did good Darst. No one can say we gave our lives for nothing" Shin smiled in the face of impossible odds.

"Blasted Sangheili…finally we have you cornered…" spoke a Brute Chieftain holding a Gravity Hammer in front of the rest of his brethren. "They've shed our brother's blood. Let us devour them as they live!" one of the Brute Jet packers suggested, putting a smile on some of the Jiralhanae troops.

"Savages! You're all filthy savages! You're ideals of warfare are far more primitive and savage than the Moles and Cheetahs will ever be!" the Blacksmith leader spoke out against the actions of Jiralhanae, after seeing how truly barbaric they are in this conflict, it sickened him to his stomach.

"That one has quite the tongue on him…Let's rip it out of him before feasting upon his bones!" the Chieftain replied, smirking with bare, sharp teeth as the Jiralhanae behind him roared in agreement.

The Blacksmith leader immediately took a step back, he didn't enjoy the feeling of being targeted by a creature five times his size. Shin growled lightly back at the Chieftain, taking a step in front the Mole and raising one of his Spikers towards their enemies. He stared into the eyes of the Brute Chieftain, especially his red cybernetic eye.

"If you want the short one then you'll have to go through me and the Zealot you overgrown baboons!" he insulted the Brutes surrounding them, now going through extreme lengths by pushing their nerves "I find it absolutely pathetic how the Jiralhanae always target the weakest of lot, needing to use overpowering options or use something else to do the dirty work for you. First Shenko, then me, then those Apes? No wonder why the Covenant went down all in shambles, weak troops following even weaker leaders!" Tarscar smiled, knowing this would touch a fair few nerves in their force.

"HE DARES CALL MAGNARUCKUS AND THE PROPHETS WEAK?" one of the Brute minors exclaimed furiously, "That's it, you've drawn your last breath Robo-gheili! I'll use your metal parts at toothpicks after I've devoured the Zealot and that Rat companion of yours!" this Chieftain had more than a few nerves tickled, insulting the Blacksmith Leader and raised his hammer at the same time as he readied to strike them down.

But fortune smiled upon Darst, Shin and the leader, as the Brutes were ready to end them there and then, behind the front wall next to their position, the Resistance's captured Phantom ascended from behind into their view, capturing everyone's attention with shock and awe. Darst and Shin were the ones most surprised.

"SURPRISE! IT'S US AGAIN YOU MEATHEADS!" Yapflop shouted happily as the Phantom turned its mass around, still piloted by Jabjab. The Brutes were grinding their teeth as they remembered this little orange armored Grunt, but what they were really dreading was the 2 Hunters aiming their arm cannons towards their former allies.

"Yapflop, your timing couldn't be any better!" Darst chuckled deeply, knowing their behinds were saved by possibly the weakest beings in existence…and they gained the respect of some of the strongest monstrosities in the galaxy. The Lekgolo pair were ready to fire on Yapflop's command, with the frontal Phantom turret turning towards the Jiralhanae as well.

"Hunters! Unleash hell!" Yapflop jumped happily as the arm cannons charged up and fired, along with the frontal Plasma turret. 2 large Scarab like beams left the side of the Phantom and threw the Brute Chieftain off the front wall and back down to the ground, and this prompted the rest of his brethren to take their attention off of the Sangheili and the Mole in order to concentrate heavy firepower on Jabjab's Dropship. Yapflop shrieked in fright as masses of spikes and Brute shot grenades blew up and bounced off those massive shields that were carried by Hunters 1 and 2, quickly throwing himself to just his left towards the front of the Phantom, hauling over his Fuel rod Gun and aided in covering Darst, Shin and the Blacksmith leader.

The Brutes were getting increasingly smashed as their encirclement turned into a slaughterhouse, no cover and no formidable weaponry to taken down this Phantom made them complete sitting ducks. Some tried to jet pack to the Phantom in a last ditch effort to halt the assault, but this made them easy prey for the front turret as it pinpointed their movements and swatted them out of the air with precise efficiency.

The Moles below hastily used caution as the falling Brute bodies could spell being crushed under more than ten times their weight. Sounds of their bodies hitting the ground sounded almost like a burlap sack that weighed a ton with random objects. On top of the wall however, the distraction provided our formerly doomed defenders an escape away from this cluster of Jiralhanae.

"Shin! Jump for the Phantom now!" Darst, holstering his sword and placing the rifle on his backside, ran towards the side doors as their Phantom provided more than enough cover to aid their escape. However if they weren't fast enough, the Banshees circling and strafing the city would eventually notice and take advantage of this sitting duck of a target. Kino jumped at the last second, grabbing onto the open door and pulling himself up with both hands. When the Jiralhanae started seeing what was happening before their eyes, they immediately shifted their fire to Darst, and soon enough, the Blacksmith leader and Tarscar as they ran along the same path.

Shin, being more athletically enhanced, jumped at the last second like Darst did, but his legs jumped him farther and landed perfectly inside the dropship, immediately turning around and firing his Spikers at his enemies, providing cover for his Mole compatriot and Kino as he got back up.

The Blacksmith Leader then too made his jump, dropping his crossbow and using every ounce of determination to make his escape. Unfortunately, his small size and muscle structure could only lead him so far. He was just able to cling on to the side door, like how Darst was. But the Leader was clinging on for dear life! Unlike a Sangheili's long fingers, a Mole's were extremely small, only just hanging onto the top parts of the doors.

Suddenly, his left hand lost grip. He left go, yelling in fright as he was about to fall from the Phantom. This caught Darst's attention, immediately kneeling down and reaching for the Leader's hand, "Grab my hand! We'll get out of here and regroup with the rest of your Blacksmith Corps!" Kino shouted, determined to get this Mole back to his forces.

"Just pick him up by his head!" Yapflop shouted, firing a Fuel rod at one of the Jet packing Brutes, exploding and causing him to scream in pain and his pack went out of control, and slammed him into the Phantom's metallic hull, then falling towards the ground.

"I would wreck his spine if I did that you moron!" Kino shouted back at the orange Grunt.

"I-I almost got it!" The Blacksmith Mole shouted, just latching his free hand onto one of Darst's longer fingers. It was only a matter of time though, as Brute fire became more overwhelming by the drawn numbers of Jiralahane to the Resistance Phantom.

As the Hunters hid behind their shields to block the increased fire, a skin piercing sound could be heard by all former Covenant members excluding Jabjab. Shin turned his head immediately, his face showing the expression of horror. Darst's eyes opened after hearing this grave sound. A projectile from one of the Spikers managed to land a fatal blow to the Blacksmith Leader. His back neck was penetrated deeply, going through his spine. His neck only had leather protecting it, allowing him to move his head freely whilst wearing his black armor.

But that one allowance of freedom was also his armor's greatest flaw. He gagged helplessly, his wind pipe torn along with his spike, completely blocked off from oxygen and his nerves. All he could do was stare at the Zealot that was trying desperately to save him, with whatever breath he had left before becoming he ascended towards the heavens himself, along with the rest of his comrades that have fallen in battle against not only the Jiralhanae, but to the Dark forces of Malefor as well…

"Darst…" he spoke with a deep, raspy, almost empty voice, "...If you find them…tell my Blacksmith workforce…their Leader; Galar…passes the Blacksmith leadership onto you…I tried my best Darst…it just wasn't enough…" his breaths became thinner and thinner as he spoke.

"Galar…No! I'm not worthy of leading! I'll be sending them straight to their deaths!" Kino argued with heavy hearts, remembering the last he properly lead a group into battle. In his mind, he could remember the beams of Scarabs destroying everyone he was in charge of, along with his comrade, Karuku, who was disintegrated right in front of him…

"Someone needs to lead by example Kino…you still have…that potential…" with the last of his breath now exhausted, he couldn't say no more. Suddenly, a Brute shot grenade landed its mark on Galar, causing a small explosion that sent Kino flying back into the other side of the Phantom, past the Hunters and Yapflop.

The smoked cleared quickly enough for Shin to see Galar's fate after that devastating blow. His 2 bottoms mandibles dropped slowly as he watched the Blacksmith Leader's soulless body fall from the Phantom towards the city grounds behind the wall.

Yapflop shrieked quietly as he watched the Mole fall to the ground, turning immediately to Kino. His groans let everyone know he was just merely stunned by the blast, but they were in horror by what he had in his right hand…

The Zealot's eyes opened to what he held, chills went down his spine and his blood ran cold as he stared at the torn arm of Galar's, leaking red blood from its end and immediately dropping it on the cargo bay floor. His skin shivered to no extent, his hearts trying to keep up with each other after accidently taking an image of that arm in his mind.

Shin got behind the Hunters to protect himself from anymore incoming fire, slowly walking up to Darst in an attempt to console him, "Darst…this…this is war. We have-" and was immediately stopped by the volume of Kino's voice, "YOU THINK I DON'T KNOW TARSCAR!" he bore his sharp Sangheili teeth, clenching his fists tightly and slamming them down onto the floor, "It doesn't matter what I do anymore, I'm cursed with the effects of my comrades dying when I lead them into battle! IT'S A CURSE I CANNOT FATHOM NO LONGER!"

Darst couldn't help his shouting, the burden of so many dead allies was just too much for him at this point, and Shin could clearly see that. Kino's pupils were so thin you'd have to look into his eyes to see them. He has dark circles under his eyes, a combo of being tired and exhausted along with experience of death in front of him.

Shin shook his and ran up to the Phantom cockpit and yelled at Jabjab, "Close the door and get us out of here Unggoy! We're all accounted for!". Jabjab nodded and punched the thrusters, speeding the Phantom away as Brute fire continued to hit the dropship but to no avail did it do any critical damage.

The side door closed and the Hunters recovered from their stances, turning to a horrified, nearly lost Darst Kino. The poor Zealot was still in deep shock of what's happened in the past few minutes…

"We're doing our very best in this fight…but at the moment it's just not enough…" Shin turned away sighed deeply, knowing very well that since they've fallen back, it's only a matter of time now before the Jiralhanae have overwhelmed the front wall defenses…

**One large chapter finally done!...here's hoping I can get the next one done as soon as possible *without another 5 months later happening…**


	72. A Devastating Blow

Moments after the Sangheili controlled, or to be precise; Unggoy controlled Phantom had fled the front wall due to overwhelming numbers of Jiralhanae warriors who had either jet-packed on top of the colossal outer defenses or simply boarded it by dropship, the enemy continued their advance despite the heroic efforts made by the Moles. However, with the fleeing of the Sangheili, it was only a matter of time before the Brutes finally gained a solid foothold into the city. And this defense wasn't without its tremendous cost of lives.

Losses were mounting faster than the kill counts were, and heavier morale blows were being dealt to the Resistance more so than the Brutes. Especially with the loss of a valiant, idealistic leader of the Blacksmith; Galar. This Mole leader fought bravely alongside Darst and Shin without question nor fear, but yet the hordes of Jiralhanae enemies just continued to prove how much of a threat they really were.

Galar died when trying to jump for the same Phantom that rescued them, and the only remaining piece of him that they had of him was Darst holding his arm…who dropped it on the cargo bay floor in horror of this tragic loss.

As the Phantom flies further away from the front wall, the larger, more powerful Chieftain's within this huge group of Brutes that failed to stop the Elites from escaping then turned to a weary Mole and Cheetah defense. There was still more to exterminate, and now with both sides of the front wall being overwhelmed, they eventually made it towards both stairways that led down to Warfang's interior.

"Not one step back warriors! Don't let those barbarians past this barricade!" a Mole captain shouted under the cover of fire from his troops, who were all barricaded and protecting themselves using battle damaged cover and sandbags to protect themselves from return Plasma and Spike fire from slowly advancing hordes of snarling, teeth baring Brutes. Their shields resisted some of the plasma fire that was returned back at them, used by the Resistance to at least stand a better chance, although the Minors and Captains at the front were taking a deaths from being up front and having no cover.

A Cheetah behind the earlier shouting Mole Captain aimed a well place shot at the gap of a Brute Jet packer, piercing through its neck and almost outright killing him. Unfortunately, this allowed for a more deadly force to expose itself to the blockade. They killed enough Brutes to allow heavier opponents to appear in their sights, taking the form of 2 War Chieftains using Plasma Cannon turrets. As the dying Jetpack was shoved out of the way by one of the Chieftains, suddenly, a barrage of plasma fire rained on the blockade, suppressing and killing any defenders that dared to expose their heads out of cover.

This same Mole Captain watched in horror as his troops were thrown back by the force of enemy firepower, cut down by sheer firepower. The Cheetah behind him made a valiant attempt to do the same to the Chieftains with what he did to the Jet-packer, but his arrow this time bounced off the thick armor. He was pelted with plasma, his body thrown back and planting into the ground.

A Mole warrior underling shouted to the captain as their blockade was being reduced to a mere shooting gallery, crying for solutions to such ferocity, "What can we do but fall back sire! They'll be holding up our heads as trophies in no time!".

This Captain merely shook his head and whispered, as plasma fire shot over his head, "Not one step back soldier…" and his voice grew louder and louder as the fear inside his heart dissipated, "NOT ONE…STEP…BACK!" he shouted a loud war cry as he pulled out his blade and ran out from his cover. Shocked by his determination, and knowing they were willing to do whatever was necessary to save their city, the remaining Moles and Cheetahs apart from a very few did the same, relinquishing their blades and charging towards the enemy as they were covered by fire from the small defenders.

The Brutes were not flinched by this heroic attempt however. One by one, each of the charging defenders fell before their plasma volley, spikes and bolts showering their bodies and making them trip and fall to the ground. The Mole captain groaned and bore his teeth as he felt immense pain from the plasma fired from the Cannon wielding Chieftains, slowing down as he reached their advance and falling to his knees bleeding massive amounts from his small body. The War Chieftains eventually stopped before this enemy of their, allowing the rest of their force to run and charge themselves towards the last remaining pockets of fighters behind the barricades.

The War Chieftains simply stared at their small furry, yet decently armored adversary, pointing their Plasma Cannons at him as he furiously bled to death on his knees, dropping his blade and taking in the last of his breath. Knowing he was going to die nevertheless, the War Chieftains let him bleed where he was, walking past him to continue their advance. The Mole Captain looked back at them, watching the Brutes around and behind him overwhelm the blockade and maim the last of the defenders. Exhausting his last breath, he fell to the ground and let accepted his demise, still surrounded by advancing Jiralhane.

The remaining defenders were cut down in no time, one cheetah even being grabbed by the arm by a Brute Captain and quickly impaled by the blade of his Brute shot, and a small Mole being grabbed by his neck and slammed into the entry point of the stairway, which was a stone interior, made from the same hardened material used to build this wall. Seconds later, the blockade existed no more, and the Jiralhanae pushed onwards to the city's interior.

This western entry point fell just as fast as the eastern point did, putting up almost exactly the same kind of determined defense at the west. And yet, still they fell to the vast hordes. Now the Jiralhanae had a true entry point inside the city without being quickly ambushed when coming in by Phantom. However it wasn't a true foothold until the front gates were open…

At the front gates, the Moles and Cheetahs were truly struggling to keep the 100 tons of gate metal shut as the massive majority of the Brute army were forcing their way in by the use of muscle and their vehicles. Choppers and Ghosts were at the forefront, grinding against the gates and force them open.

"There's too many of them! We can't hold on much longer!" a Cheetah warrior shouted as sweat beaded from his forehead, knowing exactly what will happen if these gates were opened up. Behind the dozens of warriors who were keeping the gates sealed were many prepared Moles and Cheetahs ready for almost anything that barges through, Bows, Crossbows and Covenant weapons at the ready.

Alongside this prepped defense was the last act of defiance against the Jiralhanae from Ventor Odesa. Earlier before even the Apes arrived, during the night before their attack, Odesa set up 2 Plasma Cannon Sentries to defend the front gates in case the enemy had broken through. Now many hours later, these turrets are still up and running…and are about to taste Jiralhanae blood for the first time.

"They're gonna break through Bowmaster, how long do you expect us to hold out here? There's no way the men will stay here if-" the Warlock Cheetah, wearing yellow clothing and cloaking, speaking with a Scottish like voice turned to Blue bearing feline with near the exact same uniform type.

He was cut off as he was about to explain how quickly their troops would fall back as soon as they started to face too much opposition, "We shall fall back when those Sangheili made weapons fall. They'll give savages quite the surprise when they bust through the gates. As for those boys holding them closed…may the ancestors guide them to a peaceful ascension…" he slowly pulled up his crossbow at the ready like the rest of his underlings, along with the Warlock beside him, using his deep voice to ease the concerns of his compatriot.

All weapons pointed towards the gates, staring down at what's to come as they slowly opened before them. The main push behind this opening was a Chopper, grinding metal and stone just near 2 Moles at the very edges of the opening.

"CAN'T…DO THIS…ANY LONG-GAAAHHHHHH!" one of the Moles shouted as they were all swept away by the sudden opening front gates, allowing roaring and aggressive Jiralhanae to sweep all opposing Resistance fighters behind the gates, instantly killing them all.

The Chopper along with 2 Ghosts led the charge into the prepared defenders, all held up in the buildings on each side of the main cobblestone road that was made from the front gates. The 2 sentries, one on each side, immediately opened fired along with a barrage of arrows and plasma.

The vehicles were taking minimum damage, but the Brutes behind them were fed into a meat grinder at first. They swarmed through the gates in huge numbers, roaring, shouting, calling out commands. The variety of Jiralhane was unbelievable, Minors, Captains, War Chieftains, Stalkers, Jet-Packers, hordes among hordes just rushing through the gates without any hesitance. Their resolve was strong, their desires rotted their brains, their goals simple and easy to carry out. With Magnaruckus leading them, there was no way they were going to turn down such a fight, even at the cost of so many pack brethren.

"Keep up the pressure! Don't let a single enemy breach past these buildings!" A different Mole Warlock shouted, firing his crossbow into the gaps in the enemy's armor.

The Brute piloting the Chopper immediately stopped advancing, turning to his right and pointing the ion cannons on the sides of his grueling looking vehicle and returning heavy fire into the open windows. These weapons can cause tremendous damage, slow repeated firing of heavy bolts blew out whatever cover the Moles and Cheetahs had at their disposal and killing them in just one hit no matter where the bolt landed.

The Sentry turrets took notice of this lone Chopper, pointing directly at the driver and unleashing their barrages at him, penetrating the armor and killing the driver, saving any warriors who were about to be chopper chow.

The turrets, accomplishing their objective turned towards advancing hordes and continued firing. "We may just hold our luck yet people, hold them off just a little longer!" a Cheetah Bowmaster shouted, holding up his courage and accurately shooting his chosen targets, taking down 2 Brute Minors who attempted to advance towards his building.

Unfortunately their defense was about to be quickly troubled again, as 2 Stalkers de-cloaked themselves and chucked 2 Firebombs into the same building the Bowmaster was in, setting the rooms inside on fire and burning any occupants inside. Those who escaped the blazes out front were quickly grabbed a hold of by Jiralhanae Captains and impaled by their Brute shots.

As an act of vengeance, the 2 turrets fired at the Stalkers and the Captains who were involved in this attack, shredding most of who was responsible for it. Their kills, for being just drones, were accumulating.

This firefight was now at a stalemate. The Jiralhanae did have the overwhelming numbers but were stalled by these defenders and their Sentry guns, grabbing cover behind ruins and the abandoned Chopper to protect themselves. Some Captains even started setting up portable shields, oval like personal energy shields like the ones used in the Human-Covenant War.

"Darn them and their technological superiority!" A low ranked Cheetah behind the barricade at the end of this building blockade on the Cobblestone road shouted. This was the last area before the Jiralhanae can break through and truly drive deeper into the city, support by a lot of Mole and Cheetah infantry.

As this T-junction at the front gates separated the Brute hordes, the shorter and easy way through to go deeper was heavily blockaded, and so bigger guns already had to be called in. War Chieftains carrying Plasma Cannons and Fuel Rods shoved their lower ranked brethren out of the way, pointing towards the side buildings. The Sentries immediately spotted this threat and quickly countered. 2 Plasma Cannon wielding Chieftains fell before they could even fire a single shot, but it was the Fuel Rods who were the true power around here.

4 Chieftains carrying Fuel rods got up in front, 2 pointing to each Sentry. To save their brethren, they fired their entire clips at the Sentries. Green explosion upon green explosion engulfed the areas, completely eradicating the Sentry guns and opening up a hole in the Resistance's defense. 2 buildings were left with massive gaping holes in the aftermath of 10 fuel rods impacting stone architecture.

"That's our cue to fall back! Everyone outside, get to the blockade and hope they miss all their shots!" A Mole Captain called out to all surviving ambushers, urging them to get out of these deathtrap buildings and make a break for the blockade.

From the Brute's side, they saw numerous Resistance warriors flooding outside the comfort of their positions and making a break for the made up blockade, using an assortment of furniture, ruins and metal bins to hold the enemy off.

"The cowards are running for another safe zone. Bring up the Ghosts and the Heavies into position, keep pressure on those vermin and kill all who cower their way towards the blockade!" Behind the War Chieftains came a Gravity Hammer wielding Chieftain, going by the name of Rurkus, who led this horde to the gates, ordering his pack brothers to keep the heavy weapons up front and advance towards blockade.

The 2 Ghosts from earlier eventually emerged from out of the T-junction and pushed their way pass packs of other Jiralhanae, coming up front with the War Chieftains. Immediately, Fuel rods and twin Plasma cannon fire from the Ghosts pounded the blockade, along with killing any runners who tried their very best to get behind cover. Most of them never even made it, not even the leaders who planned the ambush from the very beginning.

The screams and cries for backup alerted Rurkus that they were weak and were ready for the final blow, "Hehehe" he chuckled deviously, holding up his hammer and advanced behind the Ghosts, "Now's our chance. Drivers! Ram them! Splatter the ground with their blood!" his deep, raspy voice commanded, pointing his hammer towards the blockade.

The Ghost drivers went for it, activating their boosters and speeding towards blockade. Whoever survived the initial bombardment saw these 2 sleek, Covenant vehicles rushing for them at an incredible speed.

"Oh by the ancestors! Run for your lives now!" A Cheetah Warlock shouted, running for his very life. Too little too late. The speed of the Ghosts, combined with their weight and sleek, sharp design smashed through the blockade with ease, rubble, wood and metal flying in all directions. Some were unfortunate enough to be crushed and swept away by this attack.

Now their defense turned into a slaughterhouse. Moles and Cheetahs ran away in vain as the war machines turned towards them and mowed them down with absolute ease of their twin firing cannons, having no true weapon to combat and fight these vehicles.

As the last remaining few either kept on running or went into hiding, this marked the end of the first phase of the battle. The front wall of Warfang have fallen. The Golden cannons on top of the wall have gone silent, either un-operated or completely destroyed. The dead laid where they have fallen, and the most terrifying reality is that the Resistance had more dead than the Jiralhanae have despite the heroic efforts made by Darst, Shin, Galar, the Phantom crew, the Sentry guns and all the other brave souls who died defending this frontline.

With this shocking and sudden loss, word will eventually reach to the inner city areas where most of the Resistance is spread out. They still have yet to unleash their full potential against the Brutes. Not all their vehicles have participated in the battle yet, not all of the best of the best has fought the larger numbers of enemies on the ground.

Unfortunately, the Brutes too still retain their power. They still had weapons of their own to reveal, and they were intent from the very beginning on eradicating every single inhabitant inside the city, all just to satisfy their god-like leader…

High above the battle, Chieftain Magnaruckus smiled as he watched his army spread out from the front wall and venture further into the city. Warfang was on fire, buildings were smoking, and rubble covered 30% of the entire city, mostly at the front where the Wraith and Banshee bombing had made their marks.

"It's as if my dream has become real Jikartus. My people, my brothers…my great army has already taken its toll on Thel's pathetic excuse for an army. No matter what he's gathered in the previous days before this battle, they will all be crushed under our feet. None shall be left behind, not one single furball shall escape the interior of their walls…and even if they were to escape…there's a reason they built those giant walls in the first place. The wilderness of this planet is just as hostile, if not more so than us!" Magnaruckus clenched his fist tightly, looking back at an approaching Jikartus.

The pale golden armored War Chieftain was not as amused as his overzealous leader was. This was not a war to him. It was pointless slaughter at this time, and there is now almost no reason in his mind why this slaughter should continue. They've shown how overpowering they were, why not settle them down to bow before the Brutes instead of slaughtering them for almost no reason other than Mag's personal desires.

"Magnaruckus…I do congratulate you on how far we've come…but haven't we done enough?" Jikartus slowly objected to his leader, breaking his smile and made a more firm, and serious expression as he turned back to Jikartus…

Mag turned his entire mass around and slowly walked towards Jikartus, forcing him to walk back in fear, "Haven't we done enough…what do you mean by that Jik?" he growled deep inside his throat, his mass and height completely dwarfing Jikartus in every way.

The War Chieftain has his back against the Phantom's cargo bay backside, staring up at Magnaruckus…"From the very beginning of this campaign Jikartus, we pledged to our fallen Prophet that we would avenge his death no matter the cost….and that the Covenant would rise again with the Jiralhanae at the reigns. Only Thel Vadam has the power and the charisma to stop any of that from coming to fruition. With him gone, the Sangheili military wouldn't be as much of a threat without such a being commanding them anymore…he will bring our people down to extinction if he isn't killed…and you think we should simply stop our chance to finally end his life along with what he holds so dear to him?" Mag tilted his head slowly, whispering the last words of his sentence…

"I'm only suggesting diplomacy here Mag-" Jikartus tried to state as quickly as possible, immediately being interrupted by his leader once more, "Diplomacy didn't work for the Humans and the Covenant…it won't work for the Sangheili and the Jiralhanae either…it's them…or us Jikartus…there is no other option!..." Magnaruckus pulled back and walked back towards the opening in the Phantom once more to overlook the battle. Jikartus breathed a sigh of relief and looked back towards Mag.

"Since you haven't been in combat in this campaign yet Jikartus, I'm sending you down with one of my best legions. You're tasked with hunting down the remaining Sangheili survivors from the Shadow of Intent. If you find Thel, capture him if possible…if that fails…leave him to me…" Magnaruckus chuckled with a devious smile, giving his orders to his second in command. Jikartus, having no other choice, nodded his head and accepted these orders. It was his turn to take the fight to the Sangheili. However, conflict still ran through his mind…will it decide for him the best course of action is yet to be revealed…


End file.
